


100th Time's the Charm

by SilverEclipse119



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alphyne, Alphyne-Centric, Body Horror, But it is from the reader's perspective at the very beginning and very end, Cooking, Dead Body, F/F, Funeral, Gaster is mentioned but is not present, Major Character Death happens before the story starts, Most of the story is in 3rd Person, Papyrus shows up in a few recordings, Temporary Kidnapping, Undyne is melting a little but it's fine, character temporarily held captive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:27:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 22
Words: 42,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23706874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverEclipse119/pseuds/SilverEclipse119
Summary: After being killed by Undyne the Undying for the 100th time, you are offered the chance to see a very special cutscene.---After the human child that tore through half the underground is defeated, it’s up to Alphys to pick up the pieces. Undyne is partly melting, the monsters of the underground are repressing their grief, and an unexpected new roommate is crashing at her lab.She will need to find some way to help them all, and perhaps she can build a life for herself along the way.
Relationships: Alphys/Undyne (Undertale)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 41





	1. Chapter 1

Your body hits the cold, damp bridge, crumpling forward on the wood. 

You don’t stop there, though.

You continue falling, leaving your body behind. You turn around and watch as your adversary takes a knee. You watch as she examines your corpse.

Then, you break.

The sound echoes in your ears as your soul falls to pieces once again. The world around you turns as dark and empty as you feel inside. 

“Stay Determined!” You are told.

You drift to a stop. You feel as if your hands are still in the air above you, as if you could drag yourself back to your body. You were so close this time.

The darkness is illuminated as you are faced with a familiar option.

Continue or Reset?

You feel an overwhelming urge to rub the eyes you currently don’t possess with the hands you also currently don’t possess. You are unbelievably tired.

This is the only option you have left. This is the only ending you haven't seen. You need to stay determined.

You’ve never been good at fighting.

The darkness illuminates again. You would blink, if you had eyes right now.

The message is ironically congratulatory. “Congratulations! You have been killed by Undyne the Undying 100 times! Would you like to see a special cutscene?”

You are being presented a third option. This is new.

New is nice.

Yes or no?

…

You choose yes.

\---

Undyne huffed, her eye focused intently on the body in the blood-stained striped jumper. It remained, unmoving under her watchful gaze. She tossed another spear in its direction, and it connected without protest, piercing deep into the body’s flesh before disappearing. It was over, they were dead.

Undyne approached the body cautiously. Gently prodding it with a spear, she searched for any sign of a soul lingering within. Yet, curiously, nothing seemed to remain. Undyne carefully flipped the body over, thinking that perhaps, by some strange phenomenon, the soul had gotten trapped underneath. She immediately regretted her decision once she saw the kid’s face. 

The child’s expression remained unchanged from the battle. It still sported an unnatural grin that made Undyne’s stomach twist. It’s eyes still seemed to be lit with frightening determination, as if it would jump up and continue the battle at any second.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that your body hasn’t turned to dust yet, I would hardly believe you were a human.” Undyne muttered. She turned away to fix her eye on something else. Brave as she was, the kid’s body was just plain unsettling.

She supported herself with a spear as a wave of exhausted relief passed through her. She became aware of just how hard her heart was beating. It echoed in her ears and seemed to spread through the empty caverns of Waterfall; her heart and the hearts of many others, those living and those avenged.

She glanced in the direction of Hotland. Alphys had been watching her battle, and Undyne had no doubt she would be coming to meet her. She decided, perhaps, that she would go meet her halfway. It seemed like a good excuse to get away from the seemingly prying eyes of the dead child.

All it took was one step for her to realize something was wrong. Her body responded sluggishly. Against her will, she fell to her knees with an echoing thump, the boards painfully breaking her fall. She slouched over, her body getting harder to move, her hands grasping the wooden bridge boards in an attempt to push herself upright. She felt sick, her body seeming to become heavier and heavier. She turned her head to the side, her body relenting to its fate and lying down on the cold bridge, as her mind struggled to keep above the sea of darkness flooding her consciousness. A wave of nausea overcame her as she began to black out. The last thing she heard before fading to darkness was a disheartened cry from Alphys.

\---

“Ugg, Alphys. It won’t stop staring at me.” Mettaton shifted the body in his arms, trying to get the child's face to look away from him. Somehow, it still turned back, seeming to grin broader at his disgust. “Little creep.” He muttered.

“S-sorry Mettaton.” Alphys stuttered, her voice weary. “We’re almost back at the lab, so you won’t have to hold it much longer.”

Mettaton glanced at her struggling behind. His square screen flickered between a few different colors and patterns, as if his body couldn’t find an expression to match his emotion. “Alphys, darling, I could carry her if you want. It might be easier.” 

Alphys sighed, this wasn’t the first time he had made this offer. “For the last time, I’m fine!” She covered her mouth apologetically; she hadn’t meant to snap at him like that.

Mettaton’s screen displayed three red dots on its yellow background, and he made a short beeping sound. The body in his hands had, by some means, turned toward Alphys now, the dead eyes seeming to stare at her condescendingly, and its fixed grin making it look like it was enjoying the show.

Alphys lowered her head. “I can do this, I have to.”

Mettaton watched as she stumbled forward, the weight on her back continuing to drag her down. He sighed in a quiet, non-dramatic way. Watching her made him feel tired, even though he was almost fully charged. Still, she had taken her burden, and she refused to let anyone else bear it. He stopped at the water cooler and poured her and her companion a couple cups, which Alphys took gratefully. 

He turned and continued to roll on slowly, watching the Lab rise up on the horizon. It truly wasn’t much farther now. 

The body in his arms continued to stare up at him. “Come on,” he grumbled. “I know it’s hard to tear your eyes away from me, but I’d prefer it if you could put your attention elsewhere.”

\---

Alphys collapsed on the Lab floor. Mettaton was forced to drag her out from under the heavy, melting body she had fought so hard to carry. He took her under his arm and began to carry her towards the nearby escalator. “What did I tell you?” he tutted quietly, more to himself than to Alphys. “You’ve utterly worn yourself out, darling. You should have just let me do the heavy lifting.”

Before he could begin riding the escalator, Alphys began squirming in his grip. “Un… dyne.” she whispered hoarsely, too tired to tell who she was fighting against.

“All right, all right! Just stop wriggling. I’m going to drop you at this rate!”

“Sorry.” she whispered, her body falling limp once again.

Mettaton wheeled back over to the goopy form that had not moved an inch from where he had left it. He stared at it, stunned for a moment. Mettaton had not yet gotten a proper look at Undyne’s decayed body, and the sheer mess of it made him feel uncomfortably ill. Mettaton wrapped his arm around her as best he could, her dripping form constantly feeling like it was slipping from his grasp. He suddenly felt a rush of gratitude toward Alphys for carrying her earlier. 

In the shadows, he could see a bit of light reflecting in the dead child’s eyes. Mettaton had left the body on the floor a short distance away, in an unlit part of the room. Still, it seemed to be watching him once again, studying his actions with an air of amusement. He glared back at it defiantly. “Are you enjoying the show?” He spat viciously, turning away with a huff.

He rode up the escalator in silence, trying his best to hold tight to Undyne who, despite still being unconscious, never seemed to stop moving. At the top, he approached the bed, suddenly faced with a dilemma. He needed to flip the switch to unfold the bed, but both of his arms were occupied. Fearing he’d be unable to pick up Undyne again if he put her down, he instead carefully set Alphys on the floor. As soon as the bed had unfolded, he tore back the covers and heaved the unstable mass onto it.

He stood for a moment to regain his bearings. Looking between the bed and Alphys, he realized he had yet another problem. Undyne’s melted body had spread out to cover the whole mattress.

“Uff, now where is she going to sleep?” he grumbled to himself. Upon seemingly hearing his words, Undyne’s body seemed to shrink in on itself, becoming more self contained on the far side of the bed.

Mettaton stared in disbelief. Throwing his arms in the air in exasperated surrender, he returned to Alphys and carried her to the bed as well. Alphys, upon seeing what remained of her friend lying safely at her side, finally closed her eyes and began to snore.

Mettaton sighed in relief. He wheeled himself into a nearby corner and folded in his wheel and arms and attempted to enter sleep mode. Alphys’ snores were, perhaps, a bit louder than he would have liked, but it was far better than sleeping downstairs under a watchful gaze.


	2. Chapter 2

The darkness of sleep slowly ebbed away from Alphys’ consciousness. She shivered as she became aware of the cold air surrounding her. She sleepily reached out, grasping at the lower half of the bed for some sort of a blanket. Her blind reach finding nothing, she squinted her eyes open against the pale orange light seeping through the uncovered lab skylights. She groaned at the intruding light, cursing herself for forgetting to cover them.

A growing irritation on the side of her face finally awakened her. She sat up and stretched, rubbing the uncomfortable spot. Her claws clinked against the side of her glasses, and she realized to her surprise that she had slept with them still on. At last opening her eyes fully, she was met with a large square shadow covering most of her view.

She pulled off her glasses to inspect them for damage, the mysterious object blocking her sight coming off with them. The glasses were a bit crooked, but she was able to bend them back into shape easily enough. A sticky note had been stuck to the front of her glasses, and it was covered with fancy cursive writing from a sparkly pink gel pen.

_Dear Alphys,_  
_I’m afraid I need to head off. I promised the evacuees in New Home a performance to lift their spirits, and I simply cannot devastate them with a no show. Take care of your friend there, she’s in a rather concerning state. I’ll be back later to help you un-evacuate everyone._  
_Sincerely MTT 💖_

Alphys turned to face the melted remains of Undyne lying behind her. She still hadn’t regained consciousness. Alphys didn’t know if she would. She had seen the results of determination before, but with no other monsters to combine with, Alphys wasn’t sure Undyne had enough physical matter to stay alive. She tentatively reached out a hand to shake what she believed was Undyne's shoulder.

“You awake?” she whispered, her voice creaking with concern. As she pulled her hand back, a few strings of silvery grey goop trailed from Undyne’s armor like melted cheese, but let go of Alphys’ fingers and retracted back into Undyne’s body. She was holding some sort of form after all. That was a good sign. 

Alphys stood up and stretched out her sore legs. She dragged Undyne off the bed onto her back, just like she had carried her the day before. Holding Undyne felt unusual, like trying to carry moving water without a container, but she had experience carrying amorphous bodies. The trick was simply to keep holding on, even if it felt like Undyne was constantly slipping from her grasp.

Arriving on the main floor, Alphys propped Undyne up against the bag of dog food. She stared at her for a while, uncertain of what to do. Finally, a growl from her stomach interrupted the awkward silence. “I should make breakfast.” she said aloud to herself. She glanced up at the clock. “Or maybe brunch.” she corrected, noticing the time.

She turned around, nearly jumping out of her skin when she spotted an eerie face grinning up at her a few feet away.

The body of the child was sprawled across the floor, legs bent into a running position and one of its arms pinned under its side. The blood on the blue striped jumper had dried into dark brown patches. It looked almost delighted to see her, in a terrifying sort of way.

“That can’t be a good…” Alphys trailed off, not certain what exactly felt wrong. She worked up a bit of courage and inched up to the body. Tentatively, she reached out and touched it. It didn’t move.

“W-what did you expect, Alphys,” she chided herself. “You.. you’ve just watched too many scary movies is all. Dead humans don’t spontaneously come back to life.”

She carefully arranged the body into a more practical position on its back, it’s legs straight and arms lying neatly at its sides. It seemed that no matter how hard she tried to turn its head, it still looked straight at her.

Choosing to ignore it as best she could, Alphys went into the bathroom to scrub her hands. She knew that keeping the body on the floor of her lab was unhygienic, but she was tired and hungry and more than a little freaked out. She would make food for herself, and possibly Undyne if she was awake, and then she would move the body into cold storage until she could arrange to move it to one of the coffins in Asgore’s castle.

Alphys emerged from the bathroom, tiptoeing around the body as it’s gaze followed her. She jumped when she heard a gentle whisper.

“What?” Undyne had finally regained consciousness, and had moved away from the dog food bag. Now that she was awake and moving, her body had more or less stabilized. 

Her calves were fused to the back of her thighs, keeping her stuck in a sort of kneeling position. Her shoulder guards had melded into her shoulders and wrapped around her upper arms. Her ponytail hung limply from the lower back of her head and melted into her back. She reached a gloved hand forward and nudged the lizard shaped mug on Alphys’ desk. 

“What?” Undyne asked again, her voice sounding like dripping water. She tried to wrap her hand around the mug to pull it closer to herself, but lost her grip and knocked it off the table instead. It fell onto her lap with a soft _blorp_. She stared at it, her face scrunched with concern. “Alphys?”

“I-I’m right here.” Alphys stuttered weakly. Undyne jumped in surprise, launching herself onto the desk and knocking a pile of bowls off onto the ground. The lizard shaped mug fell off her lap, clanking onto the floor and knocking a chip out. Undyne stopped scrambling when she saw what had happened to the mug, making a distressed, apologetic noise.

“D-don’t worry.” Alphys reassured her. “It’s just a mug.” Despite trying to keep a cheerful expression, Alphys felt tears forming in her eyes. Undyne was alive!

Undyne stared quizzically at Alphys’ tears. She reached out a hand and touched Alphys’ cheek, gently wiping a tear that was ready to fall. “Alphys?” she asked. “Alphys, are you okay?”

Alphys sighed, deciding it was best not to lie. “I’ve been better.” She touched Undyne’s hand on her cheek, and looked at her face. Her good eye was filled with concern, while her bad eye had melted mostly shut, an occasional blue spark shining within like dripping water.

They stayed like this for a while, until Alphys’ hunger became unignorable. Alphys released Undyne’s hand and walked to the fridge. “You want some ramen?” she asked.

“Ramen.” Undyne repeated, her mouth feeling like it was stuffed with cotton. She licked her tongue over her teeth, still trying to get used to the sensation of melting that she felt all over her body. Her teeth gave in to the pressure ever so slightly, with an unpleasant feeling that made her quickly draw her tongue back, causing them to move back into their normal position. Undyne made a swift decision never to do that again.

Alphys set a pan of water over a portable burner. The water had just been starting to boil when a knock at the door made her jump for the third time that day.

“H-h-hello?” Alphys answered timidly as the door slid open.

Outside stood a figure not much taller than herself, though he seemed to tower over her in her meekness. His grin was tense, yet nearly impossible to read without being able to see his eyes, which were concealed under his hood. The lava gave him a frightening orange glow, and glinted red off his teeth. Alphys felt like he was staring down at her, judging her, even though they were nearly eye to eye.

Alphys would have been less frightened if she had been visited by death.

“Is that the kid?” he asked, looking past her. Alphys could hear a strain in his voice, as if he was trying to act cool while boiling with rage.

“Y-y-yes…” Alphys stumbled over the one-word answer.

Sans pushed by her without another word. He stood by the body, staring at it, his expression hidden by his hood. The body stared back. His hand shifted in and out of his pocket, occasionally flickering blue as if he was ready to smite the already dead child. He muttered incoherently to himself. 

Finally, he spoke up.

“You should keep an eye on Undyne.” he said, not taking his eyes off the body.

Undyne had scrambled across the desk to the burner, and was turning the dial up as high as it would go. 

“Undyne no!” screamed Alphys, racing over to turn the heat down before the pot melted.

“UNDYNE, YES!” yelled Undyne. A broken, bent blue spear appeared and fell into the scorching water, dissolving instantly.

Alphys turned the heat off entirely and unplugged the burner from the wall. The magic infused contents of the sweltering pot threatened to boil over at any second. She raced out of the still open door and poured the contents of the pot into the lava below. It sank beneath the orange waves. A few seconds later a blue bubble rose and burst with a belch.

Alphys sighed in relief as she returned inside. She was surprised to see Undyne and Sans now engaged in what looked like a staring contest. Undyne tilted her head to the side, and a bit of blue goop ran down the top of her fin and fell to the floor.

“So, you’re Undyne huh?” Sans chatted casually, finally pulling his hood off his head. His eyes were lit normally, and he looked like he had made peace with whatever anger he had been feeling earlier. “Papyrus told me a lot about you. Looks like you're a real hero, just like he said.” Sans’ smile didn’t look as strained as it had before, but he still looked far from happy. The lines engraved under his eyes looked deeper than they had ever looked on Alphys’ monitors. Dried tear streaks seemed to shimmer on his face under the Lab’s fluorescent light.

Undyne grinned, clenching her fist. “Ngahhh!” She exclaimed confidently.

Sans gave a mirthless laugh. “Thank you.” he said quietly. 

Undyne noticed his sad tone and lowered her arm. Her melting tasset hung loose around her waist like fabric, and her shoulder plates sank farther down her arms like long sleeves. She looked like a sorrowful princess. She sat back, a solemn look on her face. 

“I miss him too.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alphys heads down to the True Lab to drop off the body, but someone follows her down.

Sans and Undyne stood silently. Alphys didn’t want to disturb them, so she snuck past them quickly. Unfortunately, that brought her face to face with the body that was still laying on the Lab floor.

“ _Perhaps,_ ” she thought. “ _Now would be a good time to put it in cold storage._ ” Her stomach grumbled in protest. “ _I’ll grab some chips on the way back up._ ”

She begrudgingly picked up the body, who looked at her with what seemed like disappointment, almost as if it didn’t want to leave the excitement of the main floor.

“Nope.” Alphys said sternly once she had gotten in the elevator. “Nope nope nope, you’ve caused enough trouble to last a lifetime.”

Reaper Bird greeted her at the door to the True Lab. Their words scrambled together in greeting: “Hello!” “Do you have food?” “What is that?”

“Hello, no I don’t, and it’s a long story.” Alphys replied.

Reaper Bird wandered off in disinterest as Alphys headed off toward the cold storage room. She said a quick greeting to Lemon Bread as she passed them flexing and humming in the hall.

Mrs. Snowdrake met Alphys with her usual meek questions. “Have... you… heard… from… Snow...ey?”

“No, Mrs. Snowdrake.” Alphys lied through her teeth. She felt a pang of remorse. She had been lying to her so she wouldn’t have to send her home, but now…

Tears welled in Alphys’ eyes as the memory of seeing Snowdrake getting beaten into the snow resurfaced. The poor kid had just been trying to make someone laugh, and the human had shown no mercy. His dust had blended into the sparkling snow and the human had plodded right over it. Mrs. Snowdrake had never gotten a chance to see her son again, and it was all Alphys fault.

“Are you… o...kay?” Mrs Snowdrake asked, gently laying a wing on her back. Her feathers were cold, soft, and comforting, albeit a bit gooey. Alphys choked back a sob. This was how Mrs. Snowdrake used to comfort her son.

“I-I’m,” Alphys was tempted to spill everything right then and there, but she took in a shuddering breath and steeled herself. “I’m fine.”

She searched through the freezers lining the wall opposite the fridges. Most were full of frozen samples and experiments, or leftovers from Papyrus’ cooking lessons that Undyne had gifted to her. She knew at least one of them was empty.

She propped open the lid of the empty freezer, and dropped the body in. It gazed up at her, seemingly taunting her. It seemed to be saying: “ _Oh look at you, such a coward that you can’t even face me anymore._ ”

One of the barely functioning lights flickered on above with a purple glow. Alphys stared at it quizzically. She must have put the black light in by accident the last time she had tried to get the lights working. She looked down at the body one last time.

To her horror, the black light had illuminated something awful. Specks of monster dust glowed off the child's body, concentrated on their hands and feet, spreading up their arms and legs and collecting in patches on their striped jumper. Streaks were stuck to the child’s face where they had paused in battle to wipe off sweat. In the glow of the dust, the child’s unnatural smile seemed to split their face in two. Their eyes looked like they were filled with sickening pride. “ _Look at me!_ ” they seemed to say. “ _Look at what I did!_ ”

Alphys slammed the freezer door shut. She leaned over the top, gagging. Suddenly she was grateful she hadn’t eaten anything yet.

Mrs. Snowdrake came to her rescue, glowing like a melting wax angel under the blacklight. “Breathe…” she whispered, rubbing Alphys’ back with her cooling feathers. “Breathe…”

Slowly but surely, Alphys regained her composure. She sat down in front of the freezer and wrapped her tail around her legs. Tears poured from her eyes in a constant stream, but she could no longer feel them.

Mrs. Snowdrake tried to dry her tears, but it proved futile, so she instead settled for wrapping her wings around her. The two of them sat there like that for a time.

Mrs. Snowdrake drifted off into a fitful slumber, still hugging Alphys. “There… there… Snow...ey.” she whispered in her sleep.

Alphys choked.

\---

“Hello?” A voice rang out like a dripping faucet.

Alphys stirred from her restless slumber. She didn’t even remember falling asleep. Mrs. Snowdrake, who still had her wings around Alphys, began to stir as well.

“Snow...ey?” She called out quizzically, less in search of her son and more to address the unknown intruder.

“Alphys?” came the reply.

“Over...here.” Mrs. Snowdrake replied.

Undyne scooted over to them. She looked at Mrs. Snowdrake questioningly. She reached out a hand toward her. “Hello, I’m Undyne.” She introduced herself.

“Mrs. Snowdrake.” Mrs. Snowdrake replied, extending a wing.

Alphys was concerned over what might happen if the two unstable bodies touched, but she was too late to try and stop them. They shook hands and, thankfully, each retracted back into themselves.

Undyne still looked confused. “Missus Snowdrake?”

“Yes…” she replied. “Do...you...know...Snow...ey?”

“The teen?” Undyne asked. “The wannabe comedian?”

“Yes…” Mrs. Snowdrake replied tentatively. Undyne suddenly looked downcast. Alphys didn’t like where this was going.

“He…” Undyne began.

A shrill whistle interrupted. “Neat place you got here.” Sans said, not sounding at all impressed.

“Sans!” Alphys exclaimed. “What are you-”

“Undyne went looking for you.” He glared at her, his smile dangerously wide and his eye sockets dark. “She slid right down the elevator shaft. I had to take the long way, of course. And I got delayed by some of your friends as well.”

“Sans it’s not- I didn’t-” Alphys was at a loss for words. “I thought that- This isn’t-”

“Now,” Sans interrupted her. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with these, would it?” He pulled a wad of envelopes out of his jacket, waving them like a fan.

“Where did you-” 

“You really shouldn’t leave such important letters just sitting around.” He picked at the seal of one of the envelopes. “And you didn’t even open them.”

“Please don’t-” Alphys protested, but it was too late. Sans tore it open.

“Dear Dr. Alphys, when is grandpa coming home? He said he was going to tell us about the stars and their meanings.” He tossed the letter to the ground and tore open another. “Dear Dr. Alphys, is my sister coming home soon? I’m writing a song just for her.” The letter fluttered from his hands as he tore another envelope. He squinted as he deciphered the scratchy writing. “Dear Dr. Alphys, you told us our family would be back together soon, what’s taking so long? We want to roll in the snow together again.”

Sans glared as he waved another envelope in the air. “Do I even need to open this one?”

Alphys recognized the distinct pale purple envelope covered in gold stars. It was from Snowdrake.

“Please don’t…” Alphys felt weak. Tears began pouring from her eyes once again.

Mrs. Snowdrake and Undyne had been watching the scene play out in a state of confusion, but upon seeing Alphys’ tears they both jumped in to defend her. Undyne summoned up a row of twisted spears that fired off in every direction except for Sans, while Mrs. Snowdrake concentrated hard on forming a blade of ice and sent it spiraling in Sans direction. Sans dodged the attack effortlessly, and Alphys called for the two of them to stop.

Sans stood silently for a moment, his expression unreadable. He watched the streams of tears on Alphys’ face with unexpressed guilt. He didn’t know Alphys that well, that was true, but he knew enough to know she wasn’t malevolent. She hadn’t been keeping the amalgamates captive for experiments or for her own personal amusement. She kept them here because she was scared.

He wondered if perhaps he had gone too far. Still, the need to say his piece weighed heavy on his mind. He sighed quietly, and hammered the final nail into the coffin. “Haven’t enough families been torn apart?”

Alphys sobbed, Sans looked at the ground, and Undyne and Mrs. Snowdrake watched in sad confusion.


	4. Chapter 4

Undyne and Mrs. Snowdrake each rested a hand and wing on Alphys’ back. They led her through the halls back to the elevator, each keeping a cautious eye on Sans as he trailed behind. Alphys’ stomach rumbled angrily, and she blushed from embarrassment as Undyne and Mrs. Snowdrake had to keep her from falling over. 

“I-It’s just been a long time since I last ate.” she answered their concerned looks. She had skipped yesterday's lunch and dinner to watch Undyne’s battle, and missing breakfast and now today's lunch had taken a toll on her. Plus, she didn’t know how long she’d been asleep in cold storage, so she had no idea what time it was now.

They stopped at the vending machine and Alphys fished around in her pockets for some gold. Before she could find any, Sans pushed past her and began feeding coins into the slot. A bag of Chisps fell from the spiral with a soft clank. Sans handed them to Alphys. As she took them, something passed between them. It lasted for merely a minute, but it was long enough. They reached a silent understanding.

Alphys sat down in front of the vending machine. The bag of chisps opened with a squeak. Despite how hungry she was, she ate them at a moderate pace, not wanting to stuff her face and ruin the moment. Sans sat down too. His pupils returned at last, and though his smile didn’t look happy, it at least didn’t look strained anymore.

Alphys swallowed a mouthful of chisps, and started to speak. Sans spoke at the same time.

“I’ve been thinking-” “I’m sorry-”

The two of them sat in awkward silence. Sans waved his hand. “Sorry, you first.”

She cleared her throat and spoke again, her voice slightly cracking. “I’ve been thinking about what you said, or, um, implied.” Alphys took a chisp from the bag and broke it with her fingers. “You’re right. After all this… loss today, it… it might help some families if we could do a bit of… reuniting?” She shoved the broken chisp in her mouth, avoiding Sans’ gaze.

“Yeah,” Sans looked past her, assembling the thoughts in his mind. “Look, I’m sorry about-”

Alphys boldly raised her hand to cut him off. “I understand. You… we’ve all lost a lot today.”

Sans drew absently in the layer of grime on the green floor. “Yeah.” he said. A familiar symbol from a certain costume took shape under his finger.

Alphys had never seen Papyrus in person for more than a few seconds, but they had chatted online and she had seen him on the Snowdin cameras hundreds of times. Enthusiasm and pure happiness radiated off him while he had worked on the old and new puzzles in the forest. Simply watching him had given Alphys much needed motivation to work on her own projects. Alphys was certain she would have never finished Mettaton’s new body if it wasn’t for him. 

She exhaled something that was almost a laugh. She never thought she’d be upset to no longer be getting leftovers of his and Undyne’s horrible spaghetti concoctions.

She put two fingers in her mouth and whistled, the sudden shrill sound jolting Sans out of his funk. A few seconds later Alphys and Sans were covered in happiness froth as Endogeny bounded into them.

“Hehe, easy there big guy!” Alphys laughed, gently pushing them off her lap. Endogeny was too heavy for her to actually move, but they got the picture and got up themselves. They curled up next to Alphys and Sans, and Sans tentatively scratched them between their ears, much to their delight.

Lemon Bread entered the room slowly and nonchalantly. “What’s up? What’s up? What’s up? What’s up? What’s up? What’s up? What’s up? What’s up? What’s up?” Their voice spread across the room.

“It’s time to go home.” Alphys replied as Reaper Bird toddled in.

“Home!” “Home?” “Home.” exclaimed/asked/repeated reaper bird excitedly/hopefully/wistfully.

Endogeny rested their head on Sans’ lap, and he gently stroked their neck. They whined excitedly, their tail thumping on the floor.

\---

Alphys rubbed her eyes. Her night had been long and sleepless, a combination of getting the excited amalgamates ready for the day ahead, and her already unbalanced sleep schedule being thrown off nearly sleeping for the entire day prior. Sans looked as exhausted as he always did. It seemed only the amalgamates had boundless energy, jumping up and down and chattering excitedly. They watched the show as Mettaton, now in his EX form (which he had debuted at the concert the day before, much to his fans delight) and wearing a neon pink reflective vest, directed the returning evacuees into Snowdin. He waved and posed, pointing towards the town with green glow sticks. The crowds eagerly returned to their homes and establishments, assessing for any damage. Someone cursed from the direction of the shop. “They took all our money!”

“Hon...ey?” Mrs. Snowdrake’s attention was caught by the sight of another downcast Snowdrake. His glasses were misty from tears, and his bowtie drooped, half untied, from his neck. He lifted his head when he heard her voice.

“My… my love?” he asked, his eyes widening with disbelief. He ran to her and threw his wings around her without hesitation, crying anew.

“A…come...dian...in...tears?” she smiled wide, hugging him back. “What...will... people...say?”

“People love irony.” He replied, choking on giddy laughter. They stood for a bit, foreheads pressed together, blushing from happiness. Then Mrs. Snowdrake frowned.

“Where...is...Snow...y?”

Mr. Snowdrake’s breath caught in his throat. He sobbed with a broken wail that was more air than sound. 

“Wh...at?” Mrs. Snowdrake looked distressed.

Alphys rushed in, babbling an apology. “I’m sorry. I should have told you, I-”

Mr. Snowdrake cut her off. “There was a kid,” he said grimly. “A human…” 

Everyone shuddered.

“Snowy just wanted to make someone laugh.” Mr. Snowdrake shook. “If it hadn’t been for me… if I had only been more supportive of his puns…”

Mr. Snowdrake sank to his knees in front of his wife, looking as if he might fall to pieces at any moment. A look of determination crossed Mrs. Snowdrake’s face, and she suddenly looked more solid, if only for a moment. She held him as tightly as she could, fearing that if she let him go he would blow away and be lost in the wind.

Finally, she was able to pull him back to his feet. He let out a meek laugh. “Look at that. You're practically melting and yet you’re the one holding me together.”

She smiled, then looked serious. “We...both...lost...Snow...y...today. I’m...not...go...ing...to...lose...you...too. Not...after...I...just...got...you...back.”

The two walked off, leaning on each other, supporting each other.

Alphys watched them nervously. “I should have told her sooner.”

Sans placed a hand on her shoulder. “For what it’s worth, I think they're going to be okay.” He said. “It’s not going to be easy, I can see that, but they’re going to be ok. They still have each other.”

“Yeah.”Alphys said absently, not picking up on the strain in Sans’ voice. Not noticing that he was avoiding looking at the brightly decorated house in the distance.

\---

Alphys checked the last box on her list of Snowdin’s residence. “Ok,” she said conclusively. “I think it’s time to start bringing people back to Waterfall.”

Endogeny, who had been wagging their tail excitedly, suddenly froze. They whined at Alphys, tilting their head expectantly.

“Oh, oh geez.” Alphys twiddled her Mew Mew pen in her hands. “I-I’m sorry,” Alphys felt cold tears forming in her eyes. That was it? That was all she could think of to say? The entirety of dog-monster kind was extinct, save for Endogeny themselves. Unlike the other Amalgamates, they had lost their entire family.

Why hadn’t she told them any of this last night? In all their excitement she had failed to think about the fact that half their families were gone. She mentally kicked herself. If only she’d been brave enough to send them home a little sooner.

Endogeny sniffed the air frantically, running in circles. They tore in and out of Grilbey’s with a clatter of tables, and dashed into the forest only to re-emerge a few minutes later. Panting, they flopped down into the snow. They raised their head into the air and let out a heart melting howl that echoed through the caverns. Everyone who heard it had tears in their eyes, even if they didn’t quite understand why.

Then, in the distance, a tiny, high pitched howl returned the call. Within minutes a small white dog came bounding into Snowdin. He was so small he had to leap over the snow, bouncing in and out, his head popping up and then vanishing. His tongue trailed behind as he ran to answer Endogeny’s cry. No amount of fluffy white snow was going to stop him on his mission. Alphys rubbed the side of her head. She could swear she heard epic music playing at a rapid rate, but, no, there was no way, right?

He flopped in the snow in front of Endogeny, panting as well, the music in Alphys’ head ceasing instantly. Endogeny stood up, jumping and wagging their tail. The two leapt back and forth, kicking up the snow into a misty powder.

Sans wiped the remaining tears off his face with the sleeve of his jacket. “Are those two… related?”

Alphys smiled and waved her hands in the air. “Honestly? I have no idea!”


	5. Chapter 5

Endogeny and the other dog stood at the very edge of Snowdin, refusing to step off the snow like it was some sort of invisible barrier. They whined in sync, their ears drooping and tails hanging down. Sans rolled his eyes.

“ _Dog_ -gone it, you two! All right, you can come.” 

The two perked up instantly, bounding from the snow onto the damp grass of Waterfall. Endogeny ran up and tackled Sans over, licking his head, while the little dog bounced around them in circles, yapping.

“Okay, okay, you’re welcome!” Sans tried desperately to push the giant dog away. He was certain that if he had lungs or the need to breathe, he would have been smothered by now. Endogeny’s tackle already felt like it had knocked the wind out of him.

“Wow, he really likes you!” Alphys wheezed, pulling Sans out from underneath the mountain of gooey white fur. The smaller faces of the shadow dogs continued to lick his face until he was free. 

Sans grinned, his eyes almost sparkling. “Guess I made a new _fur_ -end!

Seeing that Sans was free, the other dog decided it was his turn to tackle Sans, or at least try to. He bumped into Sans’ legs, making him unbalanced but ultimately not knocking him over.

The dog whined in a disappointed way, so Sans squatted down and let him lick his hand.

“That one too. Humm.” stated Alphys, intrigued. “You know, this one's always been an enigma to me. He pops up all over the place and yet I haven't the slightest clue where he came from. Or where he lives now, for that matter.”

Sans shrugged. “He’s a monster dog, isn’t he?” 

“Well, I suppose so…” Alphys replied uncertainly.

“Then there you go.” Sans stated, as if that explained everything.

Alphys scratched the dog between the ears. “Do you think he has a name?”

“I don’t really know. Everyone always refers to him as the Annoying Dog. Like, with capital letters.”

“Capital letters?”

“Yeah.” Sans didn’t elaborate. “I don’t think anyone even knows why. That’s just… what he’s called.”

“Do you think he has any other names?” Alphys asked, perplexed by Sans’ cryptic answers.

“Toby.”

Alphys and Sans looked around. Neither of them had spoken, and the voice was unfamiliar.

“Toby. Toby. Toby.” A nearby echo flower repeated the name. Sans and Alphys silently decided it was the flower that had said it in the first place.

“Toby, huh? Heh, seems fitting.” The dog flopped over onto his back and Sans rubbed his belly. “Toby it is.”

\---

“Hey!” Undyne greeted Alphys, Sans and the dogs. 

“Hi Undyne!” Alphys greeted her cheerfully, suddenly feeling better for reasons she wasn’t quite sure of. She placed a hand on Undyne’s shoulder. Undyne whipped around to face her and wrapped her up in a rib crushing bear hug.

“I missed you too!” Alphys squeaked. 

“It’s only been like two hours.” Sans seemed to be chastising them, but his grin was wide and, for the second time that day, real.

“A-all right.” Alphys exhaled, Undyne placing her back on the ground. “Everyone’s waiting.”

“On it!” Mettaton burst up beside them in a cloud of glitter. With a few jumps he had found himself a high point where the waiting crowds could see him. Someone swooned. Mettaton broke two new glow sticks, blue this time, and began waving and posing toward the rest of Waterfall. “Orderly now! Everybody in!”

Alphys hacked glitter out of her lungs and pressed her clipboard to her forehead as the residence of Waterfall charged in a very un-orderly fashion.

\---

Alphys checked a box as she watched the little yellow bird settle back in next to the disproportionately small gap. She sighed, long and deep. No one had checked in properly, so she had been forced to go looking for everyone to make sure they were there. She still had quite a few to go.

“Who’s next?” asked Sans, who had taken off his jacket and was shaking his tank top, trying to get the last of the sparkles out of his ribcage.

“The Temmies.” Alphys clicked her pen. A nearby echo flower clicked in response.

Sans pulled his jacket back on and the two walked in silence, as was the norm. They hadn't really spoken unless it was necessary. Still, Alphys could gratefully say that the silence wasn’t awkward, just, respectful. The dogs zigzagged back and forth behind them, snapping at small glowing insects. Undyne clung to Endogeny’s back as they raced around, laughing like she was having the time of her life.

Sans suddenly froze. “Did you hear that?”

Alphys looked at him, surprised and confused. “No?”

“It sounded like…” Sans trailed off, not finishing his thought. “It came from over here.”

He ran off suddenly, and Alphys had a hard time keeping up. Since when could Sans run so fast?

He paused unexpectedly, Alphys nearly crashing into him. He was breathing hard.

“MY BROTHER IS A LAZYBONES, IT’S TRUE. BUT I WOULDN’T TRADE HIM FOR THE WORLD!” An echo flower erupted into sound.

Sans stopped breathing.

“MY BROTHER IS A LAZYBONES…” the flower repeated.

Alphys’s eyes flicked to the place where she had hidden a camera in one of the waterfalls. She remembered the day the flower had picked up. This had been one of Papyrus’ royal guard training sessions. 

“MY BROTHER IS A LAZYBONES, IT’S TRUE.” the flower repeated again. “BUT I WOULDN’T TRADE HIM FOR THE WORLD!”

“Sans?” Alphys whispered, trying not to be heard by the echo flower.

“It’s him.” Sans said, a little too loud. The flower caught it.

“It’s him. It’s him. It’s him.” The flower repeated its new message.

“Wait!” Sans exclaimed, realising his mistake.

“Wait! Wait!” the flower replied.

“Gah, why?” Sans muttered. “I couldn’t even do this right.”

“Why? Why?”

“Couldn't... do this right!” another flower chimed in.

“Why am I so bad at this?” He shoved his hands into his pockets, turning away from the flower. If he had only been a bit more careful...

“So bad. So bad.”

“Couldn't do this right!”

“I just fail, again and again.” Sans sighed, a bit of his secret spilling forth. Alphys was too distracted by the increasing volume of the echo flowers to notice.

“Fail again. Again and again.”

“So bad at this.”

“Couldn’t do this right! Couldn’t do this right!”

“Shut up!” Sans snapped at the flowers.

“Shut up!”

“So bad at this!”

“Fail again.”

“Couldn’t do this right!”

The flowers echoed louder and louder, picking up messages from each other and playing them back at an even higher decibel, mashing them together into taunts broadcasting Sans’ self-proclaimed incompetence. Alphys pressed her hands to the sides of her head, trying to drown out the deafening cacophony. Undyne tore flowers from the ground, but they continued to scream their message even after being uprooted.

“No.” Sans choked. It was all he had left to say.

“No.”

“No. No. No. No.”

“No. No. No. No. No. No.”

“No. No. No.”

“No. No.” The quiet word spread like wildfire between the flowers, the ear-splitting din fading into a whisper. 

Sans turned and fled, shoving the concerned dogs out of the way. Undyne launched herself after him in a burst of determination and a flurry of torn blue petals.

Alphys stood, uncertain what to do. The dogs whined at her, spurring her into motion. She tried to run after him, but she couldn’t see him anywhere. Undyne glanced left and right frantically, clawing at blue petals that seemed to be getting stuck in her melting skin.

“No.” an echo flower whispered.


	6. Chapter 6

Alphys glanced halfheartedly through Temmie village, checking down the last of her list.

“Temmie, Temmie, Temmie, Bob,” she rattled their names off in tune to the scratching of her pen. “And Temmie. That's everyone.”

“Then let's GO!” Undyne’s voice crashed like an ocean wave. She grabbed Alphys’ arm and tried to drag her away.

“Wait! The dogs!” Alphys cried. Undyne yelled in frustration and ran to free the dogs from a pile of Temmies. She pulled them off one by one, throwing them into a pile behind her, were they landed with a sound like squeaker toys. One of them continued to cling desperately to Endogeny.

“Noooo! Big dog such a cute!!!1!!” She cried, her face shaking. “Big dog stay with Tem!?! Tem love big dog like family!!!!”

Endogeny snorted and shook, finally dislodging the Temmie. She flew across the room with a dejected: “Noooo!!!”

“We need to find Sans!” Undyne yelled impatiently. Endogeny and Toby barked in agreement.

“Now, now. We don’t even know where he went.” Alphys twiddled her hands together. She was worried too, but she didn’t even know where to start. Maybe Grillby's? She sighed. They could comb the whole underground front to back, but with his ability to find ‘shortcuts’ he could dodge them the whole way.

Undyne angrily scratched the flower petals, some of which were beginning to dissolve into her body. The rest were slowly flowing down her body like leaves in a goopy waterfall. She tried to pluck one out. It hurt too much to remove. 

\---

“Hey.” Sans greeted them at the entrance to Hotland. 

Alphys stood back, uncertain what to say. Undyne, who had been so eager to find him before, held back as well, absently scratching her newly integrated petals. Even the dogs held back, their tails hanging low.

Alphys took a shallow breath. “Are you alrig-”

“Yes.” Sans interrupted, a little too quickly. His eyes went dark, and he twitched his head downward. His grin was strained in an unusual way, as if he was trying to make it look sincere.

“Well, as much as I’d _lava_ to stand around, I think some folks are just _burning_ to get back in here.” His pun delivery was spot on, despite his grim appearance.

\---

As Mettaton moved the crowds back in with orange glow sticks, Alphys kept a wary eye on Sans. He greeted the returning monsters with puns and a smile as she checked them off one by one. He seemed like his normal, lazy, easy going self.

And that's what scared her.

Alphys knew he wasn’t all right. She had seen it firsthand in Waterfall. She could see it in the strain of his smile. In the lines under his eyes. Yet, he looked the same as he always had.

How long had he been like this?

How had no one noticed before?

Had Papyrus known?

“Heats Flamesman, my old pal.” Sans greeted the last returning monster.

“You... remembered?” Alphys couldn’t tell if the little fireman was touched or angry.

“How could I _fire_ -get?” Sans asked with a wink, but the pun seemed to be lost on the monster as he staggered away, his jaw hanging in surprise.

“That's everyone.” Alphys concluded, checking the last box with a satisfying scratch of her pen.

“Thank goodness.” Mettaton sighed, flopping onto his back on the red carpet of MTT resort. He stuck one of his legs into the air. “I don’t know about you three, but I’m exhausted!”

Alphys yawned, her eyes watering. Through her blurry eyes she watched as Reaper Bird and Lemon headed off with what remained of their families. 

Lemon Bread was simultaneously flexing and wiggling their hips. They were smiling, but also crying over the loss of their closest sister.

Reaper Bird waved a wing dramatically through the air, talking about the stars that could be seen on the surface. The Final Frogget, Whimsalot, and Astigmatism listened to them with undivided awe. Reaper Bird even seemed to be listening to themselves, eyes glistening with excitement.

Alphys smiled drowsily. “Yeah. We should all get some sleep.”

Alphys, Undyne, and Sans bid farewell to Mettaton. A few short elevator rides later, Undyne said an enthusiastic goodbye and headed off to her home in Waterfall. Sans, Alphys, and the dogs stood for a while, not knowing who should leave first.

“Well,” Sans broke the awkward silence. “I guess I should head for Snowdin.” he said, obvious reluctance in his voice.

“I have recordings-” Alphys blurted, unable to take the tension anymore.

Sans blinked. “What?”

Alphys weaved her fingers together. “ _What am I doing?’_ ‘I have recordings… of… the day, with the echo flower. And, other days.’ _‘Oh gosh, this is only going to make it worse._ ”

“Can I see them?” Sans asked.

“ _You probably shouldn't.’_ ‘Sure.”

Alphys lead him back to the Lab against her own will. “ _You shouldn't show him.’ ‘Just one clip won’t hurt, he should be allowed to hear his brother’s voice again.’ ‘This isn’t going to help.’ ‘It might help a little._ ”

Alphys skipped through the recordings until she found the moment the echo flower had caught.

“You’ll have to try harder than that!” Undyne’s voice started the recording. It came through loud and clear, though a little bitcrushed. 

Undyne landed solidly, having just dodged a complex row of bones. She grinned sharply.

Papyrus lifted his arm and another row of bones raised from the ground. Undyne skipped back and forth, jumping and dodging.

“So, how’s life been treatin’ ya?” she asked, hurling a spear at Papyrus, which he quickly deflected. “It’s been too long since our last cooking lesson, or training session, for that matter.”

“IT’S BEEN GOING WELL.” Papyrus replied, concentrating on putting together another attack. “I’VE BEEN GIVING SPAGHETTI TO THE NEIGHBORS. I THINK THEY REALLY LIKE IT!”

“No surprise there! You made it after all.” Undyne landed on one of her hands, launching another spear before flipping back upright. The casual banter seemed odd in the midst of what looked like an intense battle, but Papyrus and Undyne had always seemed to think battle was the perfect time to catch up on each other’s lives.

“Sans moved that sock yet?” she asked, the strain of a held back laugh clear in her voice.

“UGG, HARDLY!” Papyrus grumbled. “AS IN, HARDLY TWO INCHES!”

Undyne let out an undignified guffaw. Papyrus chuckled in response.

“MY BROTHER IS A LAZYBONES, IT’S TRUE. BUT I WOULDN’T TRADE HIM FOR THE WORLD!”

“I know!” Undyne grinned. “You tell me all the time!”

The rest of the battle went on in mostly silence, only interrupted once when Undyne was knocked over by one of Papyrus’ attacks, for which he profusely apologized, and Undyne assured him she was fine and to keep going. At the end they shook hands, like always, and parted ways. 

Alphys pressed the pause key on her monitor, unable to tear her eyes away from Undyne, now frozen on the screen with a satisfied smile. 

Sans reached for the keys. “May I?” he asked solemnly.

“Y-yeah, sure.” Alphys responded absently. She didn’t notice the skeletons lightless eyes, nor the fact that his grin was so flat it was almost a frown. “I’m… I’m going to bed.” she stated, barely above a whisper.

“Ok,” Sans clicked the keys, skipping the recording back to its start. “I’ll go home in a bit.” he said, and Alphys nodded.

“Goodnight.” Alphys yawned, collapsing onto the escalator.


	7. Chapter 7

Sans wasn’t going home. Much to Alphys’ embarrassment, it took her almost a week to figure that out. 

Every morning he had been standing at the monitor, flipping through Alphys’ recordings. Alphys would greet him with a shy ‘good morning’ and Sans would mutter something in response.

Then, her schedule having been freed up by her no longer needing to take care of the Amalgamates, Alphys would sit at her computer and watch anime until nighttime. Afterwards she would bid goodnight to Sans, who would say he was headed home shortly, and go to bed, the cycle repeating in the morning.

It wasn’t until she had literally tripped over him getting a late-night snack that she realized what was truly going on.

Or, to be more precise, she had tripped over Endogeny. The large dog was lying on their side on the floor, snorting and twitching their many white legs as they chased something in their dreams. Sans was laying, arms crossed, shivering, and snoring, against their chest. Leg like limbs from the shadow dogs were wrapped around him in an effort to keep him warm. Toby’s head was rested on Sans’ leg, but the little dog was sleeping very lightly, his ears twitching for signs of danger. He jumped when Alphys stumbled over Endogeny, growling quietly, but returned to his resting position when he saw it was just her.

Alphys wasn’t quite sure what to do about the situation. In hindsight, she felt she should have noticed earlier. Of course Sans wouldn’t want to go back to his big, empty house. It wasn’t just his house, it had been their house, their home, and it was filled to the brim with both their things. It had been a castle of Papyrus and Sans, and now, it had only one king.

The next morning, Alphys dug through her storage closet and found an easy-to-draw guest bed. As she set it up, she had the feeling that, for a moment at least, Sans was paying more attention to her than the to monitor. They watched each other out of their peripheral, neither saying a word.

\---

It wasn’t until Alphys heard the grisly crack of a skull hitting her Lab floor that it occurred to her Sans hadn’t been eating either. The dogs, who usually sat or paced patiently behind Sans, ran to his aid with terrified barks. Alphys gently weaved between them, trying her best to keep them back so she could assess him for injuries. Thankfully, other than being loud, the fall hadn’t really done Sans much damage. Alphys could feel a small crack when she ran her hand over the back of his head, but it wasn’t anything a little food couldn’t fix.

Alphys set him onto his bed, which, between Sans not really caring and the dogs lying all over it, was an absolute mess. She tried to pull the covers over him as best she could, as they seemed to have gotten tied into a knot. Within 10 or so minutes, she had a bowl of steaming ramen on the floor next to him. She was afraid at first that the dogs might try to snatch it, but they seemed far more concerned about Sans’ wellbeing.

Sans didn’t wake up for the rest of the day, much to Alphys’ and the dogs’ dismay. Alphys could hardly sleep (something she had been starting to notice was occurring frequently) and was mentally kicking herself for not paying better attention to Sans. She pounded her fist into her hand. Tomorrow, something had to change.

\---

Sans was up at the monitor again the next morning, like nothing had happened. The bowl next to his bed was empty. Alphys took a deep breath, approaching him slowly. 

“M-may I?” she asked, reaching a hand toward his head. 

Sans shrugged, not taking his eyes off the monitor.

Alphys carefully touched the spot on his skull where the crack had been. It was gone, the ramen had done its job.

“You know,” Sans said suddenly, startling Alphys. “There’s a sign in waterfall, by one of the waterfalls, that says falling rocks, but it really doesn't.”

Alphys stood stunned for a few moments, until the joke finally sank in. She giggled, and Sans seemed to look a little happier, if only for a moment.

As he turned back to the monitor, watching yet another of Papyrus’ and Undyne’s training sessions, Alphys returned to her storage closet and found a folding chair. She passed it off to Sans, and then sat down at her own computer. She cracked her knuckles and got to work putting together a schedule. Within a few minutes she had the bare bones.

9:00 am - Wake up  
9:30 am - Eat breakfast, feed Sans and the dogs  
12:30 pm - Eat lunch, feed Sans and the dogs  
6:00 pm - Eat dinner, feed Sans and the dogs  
10:00 pm - Go to bed

She copied and pasted the basic schedule onto every day of the week. She knew it probably wasn't the healthiest schedule, but it was a start. Next, she decided she needed to put in some activities. She stifled a stiff yawn. She felt dead tired, but she hadn’t been expending enough energy lately to sleep properly.

4:00 pm - Go garbage hunting  
?:?? pm - Visit with Undyne - call her and arrange a time

Alphys glanced over the schedule multiple times. “There has to be more I can add!” but she couldn’t think of anything.

“Well maybe later.” She sighed, and began setting notifications on her phone.

\---

Alphys cheered as she shoved a second anime disk under her arm. It was a bit mucky, and left a greenish brown stain on her lab coat, but that's what she had worn it for. She had forgotten how much she loved searching through the garbage piles. 

Of course, most of it was actually junk. Wrappers, packaging, soggy cardboard boxes, and many, _many_ broken things. Alphys paused for a moment, holding an old stuffed toy up to the light. It appeared to be some type of monster, though it didn’t look like any that Alphys knew. The little bit of sun that trickled through near the top of the waterfall glinted off its shiny, pale blue glass eyes. The stitching that had made up its smile had worn out long ago, leaving only a few remaining threads in its face. Its orange fur was matted and wet, and it appeared to be missing a horn, a hole on the left side of its head spilling what little stuffing it had left. A long, bare fabric tail hung limply from its back, though Alphys suspected it might have been extremely fluffy once. She inspected it for a moment longer, noticing the black initials written on the bottom of its right foot. 

She imagined that once, there was a human on the surface who had loved this little monster. Perhaps they had played with it every day. It may have been a guardian from nightmares, a companion for long trips, an inanimate best friend. It might have been by this human’s side since they had been born. But the human had likely grown up, and the toy had grown old. Alphys wondered if the human had been sad when they had thrown it out. Had they cried? She had heard that adult humans rarely cry, though many of the ones in her animes did frequently. Then again, she knew very little about actual humans. But if humans made cartoons, they must make them to reflect real life at least a little, right? They might not have magic swords, or magic in general, but they must base at least the emotions on reality, right?

Alphys placed the toy back on the pile. She had only met human children herself. They at least seemed to have an admiration for monsters. 

Alphys shivered, the memory of dead, red eyes haunting her.

Well, at least _most_ of the children seemed to like monsters. At least, until they…

A colorful spectrum of eyes now haunted her.

Alphys tried not to think about it. The king knew what he was doing.

Something glimmered out of the trash pile. Alphys wedged her hand in haphazardly, wrapping it around some sort of handle. She pulled, the other junk shifting out of the way. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the little monster toy fall into the current below her feet. It was quickly swept away over the edge of the waterfall behind her.

The pile of wet garbage reluctantly released Alphys’ prize into her hands. It was… a waffle iron?

Score!

Alphys inspected it. Other than a few scratches and dents, it seemed fine. She popped the lid open, scraping out some wet candy wrappers. The grids seemed fine. As long as it wasn't too bad internally, it looked to be in working order.

Alphys hauled it over to the wood slats. She sat it down next to a large cookbook she had found.

“Hey, Alphys.” 

Alphys jumped and fell backwards into the water at the slightly melancholy greeting. Slowly she took in the bottoms of melted sabatons, connected to the knees that rested on the boards in front of her. A mix of red and silver strung down the back that was facing her, mixing like wet paint.

“U-undyne! Hi! Sorry, I d-didn’t see you there.”

Undyne was staring into the distance, over the side of the waterfall in front of her. She looked taller, her form seeming to have absorbed some mass from the flower petals. Some of the remaining petals had settled around her waist like a glowing skirt. Her hands brushed them absently.

“What did you tell me when I first found you here?” she asked. Her voice seemed to dribble and splash, much like the very waterfall she was watching.

“I, um, I can’t remember.” Alphys finally stood up, the water dripping off her lab coat.

Undyne extended her hands. A line of silver dripped off her arm and mixed with the current, slipping over the edge of the waterfall. “You had all these neat theories about this waterfall. You had said…” she seemed hesitant. “You had said that maybe there was another world down there, just like our own. With beings hoping to perhaps make it up here someday, just like we want to reach the surface.”

“Well, yeah, but it was only one theory…” Alphys crawled up next to Undyne, sitting cross legged and absently running her hand across her tail as it curled around her waist.

“What do you think those people are like?” Undyne asked. She continued before Alphys could respond. “Do you think that there's maybe someone who is tough, who wants nothing more than to get their friends and family up this waterfall? Do you think there's a smart one who wants to as well? Do… do you think there's one who, more than anything, just wants others to like them?”

Alphys gulped, realization dawning.

Undyne laughed bitterly. “Oh man, imagine their faces when they get up here only to find out it's no better than down there.”

“W-well, maybe it is better up here?” Alphys stuttered in defence.

Undyne finally turned away from the waterfall. “What do you mean?”

“Well, what if, down there, they can’t get any sunlight? Or, the whole place is just rock walls with only this waterfall for scenery? What if their species doesn't have any monsters that can grow vegetables? Maybe they don't have any materials to build houses with, and they have to sleep together on the cold rock floor just to stay warm.” Alphys’ fanfiction writing imagination began to run wild. “Perhaps they're huddled together right now, and wondering what it's like up here. Imagine them getting up here and seeing the patches of sunlight, and tasting the food, and seeing all the beautiful landscapes this cavern has to offer!” Alphys was swinging her arms wildly in excitement. She stopped when she realized Undyne was staring at her. “Oh, s-sorry, I'm rambling again…”

“No, no!” Undyne waved her hands. “That was… nice to hear, thank you.” she turned around to look at the top of the waterfall behind her. “Do you think that there would be a place up here for them?”

“W-well, I don't know if everyone would get along with them, but I know plenty of people would.” responded Alphys.

Together they watched the sunlight sparkle over the top of the waterfall. Undyne spoke quietly. “He would have welcomed them with open arms.”

Alphys twiddled her fingers helplessly. She wanted to do something to make Undyne feel better, but the underground had lost a spark that was irreplaceable. A student, a brother, a friend. 

A twinkle in the waterfall caught Alphys’ well trained, garbage hunter eyes. She didn't know what it was, but it was moving fast. She tried to pounce on it, but she fell into empty water as it slipped by. She bolted after it, wrapping her claws around it just as it flew over the edge of the lower waterfall. She cried out as her feet slid underneath her, sending her careening towards the abyss. Two hands grabbed her tail and flung her backwards, away from the edge. 

“Are you okay?” Undyne yelled breathlessly, her luster returning after her heroic save.

Alphys smiled at the thing in her hand, before giving it to Undyne. 

It was a necklace. A fine silver chain, with a charm in the shape of fish bones. A single diamond sparkled from the fish’s eye socket.

“Do you like it?” asked Alphys, still flustered and thrilled from her near-death experience.


	8. Chapter 8

After a quick shopping trip, Alphys returned home and plopped the cookbook down on her desk. As she leafed through it, she was glad to see that human recipes seemed to have similar ingredients to monster ones, or at least similar enough that she could make a substitution if necessary. The idea of cooking something new made her feel unexpectedly happy, and she found herself whistling a peppy tune as she tied an apron around her pink shirt. She quickly washed her hands and wiped them dry on her jeans.

Alphys had been raised her whole life on a steady diet of tv dinners, ramen, and other prepackaged foods. As wonderful as her parents were, they had never been great cooks. Alphys decided that it was time to learn how to make something other than ramen, if not for herself, then for her house guest. She knew he likely wouldn’t complain about having noodles for dinner every night, but she wanted to be a good host.

She flipped the cookbook back to the index, scanning through breakfast recipes. “Waffles, page 30.” she read aloud to herself, before remembering Sans was in the room too. She stole a nervous glance at him, but it seemed like he hadn’t heard her.

After clearing off a section of her desk, she plugged in the waffle iron to start warming it up, then read through the recipe. She measured out two cups of flour, dropping them into a bowl. They landed with a _poof_ , a small white cloud rising and settling on the counter and Alphys clothes. She tried to wipe the flour off, but it just spread into larger patches on her jeans. She added sugar and baking powder, but paused before adding salt. 

She stared at the pinch of salt now resting in the palm of her hand. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t want to add it. She felt like it might ruin the recipe for something that was supposed to be sweet. She shrugged, and tossed it over her shoulder like she had seen Mettaton do on his cooking show.

“Hey, are you trying to as- _salt_ me?” Sans asked, brushing some of the salt from his shoulder.

“Oh! Sorry!” Alphys pressed her hand to her forehead, once again she had forgotten Sans was behind her.

“Eh, don’t worry about it.” His grin was meek, but faintly real. “I’m not _salty_.”

Alphys returned to her recipe, puzzling over the instructions to ‘separate the eggs’. She followed a little number in the corner of the instruction to the ‘cooking basics’ guide in the front of the book.

“Crack and split the shell, then transfer the yolk between the shells, letting the white drip into the bowl.” she whisper read. She had really found herself an informative book. Why on earth would a human throw it away? 

She cracked an egg on the side of an empty bowl, and tried to pry it apart. It resisted, and she pulled harder. Suddenly, the shell shattered in her claws, egg white and yolk coating her fingers. She quickly tossed the egg into the trash. She wiped her hands with a cloth and tried again.

She hit the egg a little harder this time, and was able to pull it apart without it shattering. She poured it back and forth, watching with satisfaction as white dripped off while the yolk remained whole. She dropped the yolk into the bowl with the dry ingredients and separated another egg with similar success. Something about it reminded her of her early days as a science student, carefully following her instructors’ orders, gently mixing chemicals, looking for the results she had been instructed to find. Though, admittedly, some of those experiments had resulted like the egg in the trash. 

“Learn from your mistakes.” her professor had always said.

She rested her hands on the counter for a moment. What would her eager student self have thought if she could have seen herself now? The appointed ‘Royal Scientist’, too afraid to do experiments for fear of messing it all up again. Standing in a makeshift kitchen wearing jeans and a t-shirt learning how to cook instead of experimenting and freeing everyone from the underground. That had been her dream, had it not? A wide-eyed dream of freeing everyone from the underground and being the greatest scientist that monsterkind had ever seen.

“YOU AND ALPHYS BEEN GETTING ALONG?” the sentence pierced her thoughts. She had gotten used to tuning out the recordings, but this one had gotten through.

“Oh, yeah! Definitely!” The familiar sound of launching spears filled the air, as well as the sound of them clacking against bones. “You know, we should all hang out sometime! I bet you two would get along. She already loves your spaghetti!”

“INDEED!” Papyrus agreed. “WE CHAT ONLINE ALL THE TIME! IT WOULD BE ONLY NATURAL THAT MY BEST ONLINE BUDDY SHOULD BECOME MY IN-REAL-LIFE BUDDY!”

“Oh yeah! You’d get along great. She’s so smart and talented and funny and nice and cool and… and cute…” Undyne’s sentence drifted off at the end, and Papyrus had to catch an attack to keep it from hitting her.

“YOU REALLY LIKE HER, HUH?” he spoke at a slightly lower decibel than usual.

“Yeah,” Undyne breathed, before snapping back to reality. “Be-beCAUSE SHE’S MY COOL AWESOME FRIEND, and she's gonna do great things!”

Papyrus squinted one of his eye sockets at her, but said nothing.

“She’s gonna be the one to free us from the underground, I just know it.” Undyne jabbed her thumb at herself. “Unless, of course, I do it first!”

“HEY! DON’T COUNT ME OUT!” Papyrus waved his arms. “MY PUZZLES ARE GONNA DO THE TRICK, JUST WAIT AND SEE!”

Undyne thrust a spear into the sky. “Then to the victor go the spoils! Fame and fortune!”

“AND LOTS OF FRIENDS AND FANS!” Papyrus added.

“NGAHHH!” Undyne shouted her war cry.

“NYEHHH!” Papyrus joined her. They launched back into battle, with even more vigor than before.

Alphys pressed her red face into her hands. Undyne believed in her with such conviction. She only wished she could believe that much in herself. She rubbed her face before returning to her recipe. 

Butter, milk, vanilla.

\---

Alphys folded the now fluffy egg whites into the smooth batter. She had been surprised when the recipe had told her to beat them, and even more surprised when they had turned into a fluffy foam. Who knew egg whites could do that?

Cooking was more interesting than she had thought. More… scientific than she had thought.

She spread butter over the waffle iron and poured batter into the hot squares, pressing it shut. The light on top glowed orange.

She sat down in her computer chair, leaning it back with a creak. She suddenly felt tired, but not in the mentally exhausted way she had been feeling before. This tired was more physical, more real. This tired felt good. She felt like she could actually sleep.

The light on the waffle iron clicked to green, and she lifted two square, golden brown waffles out. The very scent made her mouth water, but she held herself back. Guests first.

“Sans, what do you want on your waffles?”

Sans paused the monitor. “Oh, you don’t have to worry about that part. I can do that.” He walked over, taking the plate and spreading butter on the waffles. He grabbed the syrup and poured it over, making sure every square was filled.

“Breakfast for dinner, huh?” Sans’ eyes were brightly lit, despite being only half open. “Not a _waffle_ idea.”

“Glad you like it.” Alphys laughed, pouring some more batter into the iron. Sans returned to the monitor.

Soon Alphys’ waffles were ready as well. She decided to follow in Sans footsteps with the butter and syrup, but also threw on some chocolate pieces for good measure. She sorted through the jars of canned fruit. The recipe had recommended peaches, but those were too hard to grow in the underground due to the lack of sun, as was the case with most fruit. It had already been hard enough to magically engineer the basics, such as wheat and sugarcane, to grow without sun. The Vegetoid had proven their mastery of magic by managing to produce almost every vegetable under the sun without the use of it, but some fruits had proven impossible. Alphys settled on blackberries.

The first bites of the waffles were heavenly. Alphys stared at her hands, hardly believing that she had made something so wonderful, and on her first try too! The blackberrys had turned out to be an excellent choice of topping, their tartness cutting through the sweetness of the syrup and chocolate. Sans came back for seconds, and Alphys indulged in them too. The batter disappeared almost too quickly.

Alphys stacked the dishes onto the teetering piles of bowls. She packaged up the few remaining waffles, deciding she would bring them to Undyne. Some of the waffles were slightly overcooked, so she tossed them to the dogs, who snapped them up happily.

She went over to collect Sans’ dishes, finding to her surprise that he had fallen into a food induced sleep. Alphys had never seen him look so peaceful: though she realized, to her slight displeasure, that he had eaten his waffles without any utensils. His feet were propped up and his plate rested on his chest as syrup dripped down his fingers onto the floor, and coated the front of his jacket, as well as most of his face. Still, Alphys couldn’t stay mad for long. The feeling of her cooking making him somewhat happy made her heart flutter with pride.

She hung her apron over the back of her desk chair and yawned, stretching her arms in the air. Her phone beeped a secondary alarm, and she realised she was late for bed. She brushed her teeth quickly and raced upstairs. She changed into pajamas and leapt into her bed with an excited squeal. She laid there for a little while, rubbing her feet together, her tail twisting around her legs in excitement. She had cooked something, something that wasn’t ramen, and she had done it by herself!

Slowly her body unwound, and she relaxed into a contented sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I do make waffles without putting salt in the batter. A bit of a controversial thing, I know.


	9. Chapter 9

Alphys dodged an onslaught of tomato mush as Undyne beat a variety of vegetables into her counter. She stirred the pasta with as much vigor as she could muster, barely managing to make a dent in the uncooked noodles.

“I’m… I’m not too sure this is how it’s done, Undyne.” Alphys had looked up spaghetti in her cookbook before leaving the house that morning, and she couldn’t remember the part about the ends of the noodles catching fire. She tried in vain to extinguish the flames by scooping some water from the inch-deep puddle at the bottom of the pan.

“Of course this is how it’s done! You gotta show it who’s boss!” Undyne grabbed a green pepper in her glove-like hand and crushed it, the juice spraying across the back wall of the kitchen. “You gotta wrangle it into submission!”

“If you say so.” Alphys subtly turned down the heat, mistakenly blowing on the fire in the pot. A thin layer of oil had gathered on top of the water, and it burst into flames. Alphys stared at it and then at the bottle of oil they were using for cooking; she grabbed it and read the label, frowning. “You know, I think CORE oil is supposed to be used to keep the core running smoothly, not to season pasta.”

“I like it! Gives everything a nice, fiery flavor!” Undyne’s voice gurgled like white water. Undyne’s body had become more stable after absorbing some mass from the echo flowers, but her speech still sounded strangely… liquid. 

Alphys turned the heat off, giving up on trying to put out the fire. 

“Spaghetti flambe, huh?” Undyne pulled the still flaming spaghetti from the pot with her bare hands, breaking the spaghetti in half with her fists and sprinkling it on the plate. It landed in a charred pile and she ‘poured’ the vegetable mush over it. “It’s a little tamer than I’m used to, but I think you’ve given it a real Alphys flare, ya know?” She took a crunching bite out of it.

“Thanks.” Alphys sat for a bit, gnawing at the end of a raw noodle. “You know, I noticed you didn’t use your spears this time.”

Undyne shrugged. “Eh, it wouldn’t work anyway.” She formed a twisted spear and tossed it toward the piano, but it spiraled off and crashed into her bedroom door instead, cracking the wood before dissipating. “They never land where I want them to.” she said, her voice thinning out like a nearly dried up stream.

Alphys couldn’t bear to see her ~~crush~~ _friend_ look so melancholy. She slammed her hand lightly on the table, her plate clanking. “We should try and fix that!”

Undyne pounded her fist on the table, the dishes flying into the air and crashing onto the floor. “You really mean it? You’ll help me out?” her voice was rushing like a river now.

Alphys boldly placed a hand on Undyne’s shoulder, her eyes glowing with determination. “Absolutely!”

\---

The dummy stood, unharmed, at the end of the training mat. Holes littered the ground around it, and more formed as its attacker thrust another round of spears at it. They hit nearly everything but the training dummy.

“What if you aim away from the dummy?” Alphys called from the side, monitoring Undyne’s magic with one of her devices. The line on the screen waved up and down, then formed into stars and water droplets, before forming clouds and raining. Alphys stared at it, perplexed. The device was _supposed_ to measure magic in a wavering line. Then again, it had always reacted like this to the Amalgamates. Determination did weird things to magic, apparently.

Alphys’ suggestion proved near deadly. Undyne attempted to aim the spears at everything but the dummy, but they instead flew from behind her in a spiral explosion. Alphys had to jump behind a rock wall to avoid being impaled.

“O-okay, maybe not.” she stared at the dissipating spear that had pierced the wall mere inches from where she had been standing.

Undyne yelled in rage, sending a row of z shaped spears crashing down. It landed a good few feet away from the dummy.

Alphys scratched her head. The Amalgamates had been fairly good at magic attacks from the get-go, except for Mrs. Snowdrake, who had to focus her magical energy on holding herself together. 

“ _Is it instinct? Or pure luck?_ ” she wondered if she should call up Reaper Bird or Lemon Bread to ask them for advice.

Undyne threw another twisted spear at the dummy, but it spiraled off to the right and crashed into the cave wall. She did it again, and it crashed into the left wall. She was just about to do it again when Alphys called for her to wait.

An idea was forming in her head from watching the individual spear throws. She inspected the spear: the shape and form of the twist. “Throw this one to the right of the dummy.” she said decisively.

Undyne complied, and the spear twisted left in mid air, making contact with the dummy for the first time.

Undyne quickly formed another spear, and Alphys inspected it again. “Throw this one right too.” Once again the spear turned left, hitting the dummy with another satisfying _thunk_. Undyne formed another spear. 

“Throw this one left.” Alphys decided, and the spear arched right, hitting the dummy once again. Undyne began forming spears more rapidly, and Alphys called out directions more rapidly as well.

“Left!” _thunk-_ “Right!” _thunk-_ “Left!” _thunk-_ “Left!” _thunk-_ “Right!” _thunk-_

“How are we doing this?” Undyne asked, her voice splashing excitedly.

Alphys pointed to the spears. “They arch the way they’re twisted!”

Undyne watched the spears fly. Sure enough, the ones that spiraled to the right flew right, while the ones spiraled to the left flew left. Undyne concentrated, and soon realized she was making decisions on where to throw them without Alphys’ help. She even started throwing more than one spear into the mix, five or six of them stabbing into the dummy, tearing it apart.

Then, she threw one the wrong way.

It spiraled around like a boomerang, heading directly for Alphys. She shrieked, too far away from the wall to duck behind it for cover. She covered her face with her hands and braced for impact.

_Miss._

The word burst into the air as Undyne attempted to shield Alphys. The spear sank into her mushy skin, melting on contact and dissipating upon touching the ground.

“Are you alright?!” Undyne’s voice was shrill like steam from a kettle.

“F-fine…” Alphys stuttered, recovering from her life flashing before her eyes.

Undyne frowned, looking unconvinced. “I think that’s enough training for today.”

\---

Undyne had sipped back two scalding cups of tea before she finally asked her burning question.

“Why didn’t you block it?”

Alphys opened her mouth, then closed it. She took a sip of her cold, nearly untouched tea, then tried to speak again, but failed. Her face was getting more and more red every second. 

“I don’t know how!” she blurted, finally.

“To block?”

“To use magic!” Alphys confessed.

Undyne blinked, before letting out a nervous, trickling laugh. “Come on Alphie, every monster knows how to use magic. It’s instinct.”

Alphys shook her head. “I don’t know. I was just never able to get it to work.” She clutched her teacup, searching for warmth that was long gone. “That's partly why I got into science, because that consisted of magic I could manipulate.” She remembered the joy of the first time she had used liquid magic as a child, turning a gold coin pink. It was a simple experiment, a scientist's parlor trick, but it was the first time magic had responded to her.

A loud crack stirred Alphys from her memory. Undyne had accidentally split her teacup in two.

“We’re gonna make this work, right now!” Undyne jumped from her chair, grabbing Alphys by the tail and dragging her behind her.

Alphys clawed at the floor. “I thought you said training was over!”

“For me maybe, but not for you! Fuhuhuhu!” Undyne bubbled.

\---

Now it was Alphys’ turn to play: ‘Don’t hit the dummy’.

She stood, mere inches away from it, concentrating. She was having a staring contest with it, more than anything else, and she felt ridiculous.

“Reach into your extremities, your innermost being!” Undyne coached. “Your, uh, YOUR whole body!”

Alphys was reaching alright. Inside, outside, but she couldn’t seem to find anything.

“Feel the, er, the EBB AND FLOW! The… the magic in the depths of your SOUL that connects you to everyone! Feel everyone's hearts beating as one! Um, listen to your heart, listen to the beat, listen to-”

“Undyne, you're making this up off the top of your head, aren't you?” Alphys interrupted.

Undyne knocked her head. “Ugg, what did the king teach me about this?”

Alphys booped the dummy on the nose. “Well, if you can’t remember how the king taught you, then how do you do it?” 

“Well,” Undyne squared herself up to the dummy. “First, you gotta size up your opponent.” She stood for a moment, checking the dummy’s stats.

“Then, I suppose, I think about what this fight means to me.” she glared at the dummy. “Like, winning this fight might help you use your magic.”

She got into a fighting position. “Then, I draw together my magic from my feelings.” A few spears began to form. “Like right now, I feel like this dummy is going to go down!” The spears launched, and, with the help of the earlier training, struck all of the most sensitive spots on the dummy. “Ta da!”

Alphys took a fighting stance in front of the dummy. She started by checking its stats.

_Dummy: attack 0, defence 0  
A regular training dummy. Give it all you got!_

Alphys thought about the fight and what it meant. Perhaps she would finally unblock whatever was keeping her from doing magic. Perhaps she too, would finally know the joy of expressing herself through magic.

She pulled on her feelings. The feeling of hope, of anticipation, of potential.

“Do you feel anything?” Undyne’s voice trickled in a whisper.

“I feel...” Alphys sighed. “I feel hungry.”

Her stomach grumbled as her phone beeped a third missed dinner call. “And I’m sure Sans is hungry too.” she added.

Undyne collapsed on herself in defeat. “Fine! Go home and make some food,” her voice was like water hitting rocks, but then she grinned. “But you better be ready to work at this tomorrow too!”

Alphys groaned. “Okay fine!”

“No no!” Undyne stretched up and pointed Alphys toward the caverns. “You gotta be bolder about it! Tell the world how great a magic your gonna be!”

Alphys yelled meekly into a cave. “I’m gonna be great at magic.”

“Louder!”

Alphys gulped. “I’m gonna be great at magic!”

“Louder!”

“I’m gonna be GREAT at magic!”

“LOUDER!”

“I’M GONNA BE GREAT AT MAGIC!”

“DARN RIGHT!”

Alphys couldn’t help but laugh at the spectacle they had just made of themselves, but somehow, it made her feel better.

Undyne sank down, suddenly uncharacteristically quiet.

“What is it?” Alphys asked.

“It’s nothing.” Undyne’s voice dripped. “I just… remembered... something.”


	10. Chapter 10

Alphys leafed through the pile of letters that had been slid under her door. Ever since she had come clean and sent the amalgamates home, she no longer lived in fear of the mail that occasionally came to her door. There was a letter from Asgore, with a pressed golden flower in the middle, thanking her for her services during the crises of the last month and letting her know that the body had arrived safely. Alphys had to sit down after reading it, stunned. Had it really been a month since the child had torn through the underground?

She had felt safer after getting the body out of her house. While she had prepared it to go to Asgore it had continued to stare at her, taunting her. The grittiness of the invisible layer of dust on the child’s skin had proven to be a grim reminder of just how many monsters had been lost. Despite Alphys’ best efforts to keep herself occupied and her mind off the events of that day, the presence of the body had brought back painful memories. 

Alphys set the king's letter to the side. She laid her head in her arms on her desk, her tail reflexively wrapping around her leg in a form of self comfort. Papyrus’ voice blasted from the monitor as usual, but Alphys was too distracted in her own thoughts to listen to what he was saying.

Was this healthy? Alphys had noticed that the other monsters were going about their days, bright faced and cheery, and they never seemed to talk about _that_ day. Everyone had collectively decided to push it from their minds, distracting themselves with everyday activities instead. Still, Alphys had seen a monster or two break down: walking in the middle of the street, looking sunny as could be, when tears would start rolling down their face. Some would smile as they cried, still trying to keep up their cheerful facade through the cracks in their happy masks. Others would throw an uncontrolled fit, wailing and sobbing as onlookers would try to gently coerce them back into artificial happiness.

They were all treating it like their situation of being stuck underground. Like it was all a temporary problem that would go away when the time was right. They had all taken on their ‘smile because there's nothing you can do’ attitudes, instead of dealing with their grief in a proper way.

“ _Gosh,_ ” thought Alphys, rubbing her eyes. “ _We haven’t even arranged a funeral._ ”

No one had thought about funerals because all the dust had been lost to the snow and water. Alphys decided they had to do something to honor the dead. Something to help everyone say goodbye.

She pulled out a piece of paper. Usually she would just text Asgore, but this felt too important to discuss over the phone. She quickly jotted down a note and placed it in an envelope. She would watch for the postmonster tomorrow and send the letter as soon as she could.

She realized that she still hadn’t opened the last of her letters. One in particular stood out, as it was bright pink, the address having been written in blue glitter pen. Alphys didn’t even need to read the return address to know who it was from. She tore it open cautiously, but thankfully it didn’t explode into glitter. She peered inside to discover that it was filled with glitter, however.

She shook it out, a small pile of pink, red, mint green, and blue sparkles piling on her desk. Three slips of paper fluttered out as well. She reached inside to retrieve the no longer buried letter.

The paper the letter was written on was pink, and Meattaon’s use of several different colors of glitter pens (sometimes within the same word), made it difficult to focus on reading it. She squinted her eyes and tried to decipher it.

_Dear Darlingest Doctor Alphys,_

__

__

_I am writing to you on this fine and wonderful day to tell you that I have decided you should come to my concert tonight. I have provided you with three tickets, so you can invite your friend and houseguest. An employee of mine will be there at 7 pm sharp to pick you all up!_

_Sincerely, MTT ❤_

Alphys looked up at the clock in panic. She had just gotten back from garbage hunting, and it was already 6:15. She had been preparing for a quiet evening of cooking!

She ran her hands over her head. A concert in less than an hour! What would she wear? How many people would be there?

She grabbed her phone so fast she nearly smacked herself in the face with it. The keys clicked rapidly under her thumbs.

_\- Undyne, get over here ASAP!_

\---

Alphys stood in her black and white polka dot dress. Her feet were pointed together, and her tail was wrapped around her legs. She felt ridiculous, and this was crazy. She should have just told Mettaton ‘no’.

Undyne smacked her on the back. “Don’t worry bout a thing, you look great!”

Alphys’ tail loosened around her legs, but remained wrapped. “There's just going to be so many people, and they’re going to be loud.” she squeaked.

“Ah. Don’t worry about it!” Undyne stretched to her full height so she could slap a hand on Alphys’ shoulder. “You’re gonna be having so much fun with me and Sans that you’ll forget all about them, right Sans?”

Sans, who was standing by them distractedly, suddenly snapped his focus to the conversation. “Yeah, sure.” He tugged at the tie Undyne had forced around his neck. “A _skele_ -ton of _skele-fun_.”

Alphys frowned, and Sans shrugged. The puns had been weak, and he knew it.

Alphys decided to keep her focus on Undyne to try and calm her nerves. She looked very nice tonight, even though she was unable to wear clothes because of her permanent melted armor. She had instead gone all out with jewelry. She was wearing a pair of dangly earrings with sharp looking blue water droplets, and another pair of stud earrings that were shaped like skulls, with blue eyes. She had a windy silver bracelet going up most of her upper left arm, and two blue, sequin bracelets on the right. Around her neck she wore the fish bone necklace that Alphys had given her. 

Undyne’s bad eye flashed more rapidly with excitement as a small pink and white limo pulled up in front of them. A disgruntled cat in sunglasses stepped out of the driver's seat, pulling the door open for the three guests.

“Burgerpants?” Alphys stared at him as Undyne and, reluctantly, Sans crawled into the limo. “Don’t you just serve food?”

The cat grimaced, his pointed teeth tightly clenched as he spoke. “It was a special order from the boss. One Glamburger with a side of picking up his three vip guests.”

Alphys looked at the car nervously. “Are you, uh, qualified to drive a limo?”

“When you work for MTT, you’re qualified for anything.” Alphys looked at him apologetically. He pulled down his sunglasses, staring to the side like he was looking into a camera. “What? It’s a living.” He raised his glasses back over his eyes and grinned, his jaw pushing several layers into his chin.

Alphys clambered into the meticulous limo. She rode along in silence, inspecting the several bottles that sat in a few buckets of ice. She had never really drunk alcohol before, but she shrugged and pulled a grapefruit flavored cooler from one of the buckets. She figured it might calm her nerves, and it had a low alcohol content anyway. Plus, she was curious about what grapefruit tasted like.

She nursed the drink, finding it had a strong yet refreshing flavor, though it made her throat feel a bit scratchy. She watched the scenery, or rather lack thereof, as it passed by. “ _You’ve seen one pool of lava and you’ve seen em’ all._ ”

Undyne let out a low, splashy grumble beside her, and she turned to see what was wrong. To her shock, Sans was gone from the opposite window, only his tie was left behind. She also noticed that one of the ice buckets was gone.

\---

Alphys pressed her hands to the side of her head, trying to drown out the sound of hundreds of people screaming. Her tail was so tightly clamped to her leg that she was afraid she might trip if she tried to retreat anywhere.

The V.I.P. spot had put them, gratefully, out of reach of any of the other fans. So long as Alphys stayed in the middle of the red patch of carpet, she could avoid being jostled by the screaming monsters that crowded the ground, reaching their hands (or claws, or tentacles, or wings) on the stage. Unfortunately, she was not spared from the smell of hundreds of sweaty fans jumping up and down.

“ _Why does there have to be so many people!_ ” she screamed in her head in a desperate attempt to hear her own thoughts over the ruckus.

Undyne at least appeared to be having a good time. She danced wildly to the music, not really paying attention to the stage. It wasn’t until she saw Alphys’ state that her demeanor changed.

Undyne waved at the stage, drawing Meatton’s attention instantly. She pointed at Alphys and made a signal with her hands to bring it down a little. Mettaton nodded, finishing his song with a flair.

“Okay, everyone! We’re gonna bring the beat down for a moment!” He called out. “If you brought a special someone with you, now's the chance to show them how much you care!”

He signaled to his sound workers and a slower beat began to play, the music smoothing out into a calm flow. There was a momentary eruption of cheers as his fans recognised the song, but it settled down quickly as monsters began to grab their partners for a dance.

Undyne tapped Alphys on the shoulder, and she took her hands off her head, sighing in relief. She blushed suddenly, feeling a goopy gloved hand reach into her own. Undyne guided her gently back and forth, until her tail unwrapped from her leg and she was able to move it again. She danced across the plush red carpet, breathlessly following Undyne’s lead. She didn’t know Undyne could dance, at least, not like this.

The music began to surround Alphys, and she let it flow through her like magic. Mettaton’s voice filled the air, smooth as butter.

“ _As my life falls apart, the pieces fall into place,  
My mistake was holding on so tight,_”

Alphys recognized the song, she had heard it on the radio once or twice. It was one of those rare, slower songs that Mettaton said he had written a long time ago, long before he had even met Alphys. It always made her pause when it came on, an unusually serene moment between the hundreds of quick, loud songs that played.

“ _I thought I had the puzzle figured out, I thought this was the route,  
I thought I had it right,_”

Alphys gasped as Undyne swooped her off her feet into the air.

“ _My memories are broken, falling to the ground,  
As I start to find you,  
Are we doomed to drift apart, or can I play this part?  
Is there something I can do?_”

Undyne dipped Alphys, and she lifted her leg into the air as dramatically as possible. They returned upright and flew across the ground, their feet hardly acknowledging the carpet anymore.

“ _Can I spend this twilight with you?  
Here between the day and night, the old times and the new?  
Frozen in time, nothing on the line,  
Can I make this memory with you?_”

The song drifted to a close as Undyne pulled her in close, their faces almost touching. Alphys’ eyes fluttered closed as her heart beat rapidly.

Suddenly a heart shaped spotlight flashed on over the crowd. “Oh hoho! Darlings!” Mettaton called out. “Who’s gonna get caught in the spotlight of love?”

Alphys began to panic as the light drifted toward her and Undyne. She shook her head frantically at Mettaton. He frowned and pouted like a disappointed child, but redirected the spotlight onto Mr. and Mrs. Snowdrake, who were also attending the concert. Blushing, they quickly pecked their beaks together. The crowd cheered, watching them on the big screen.

Which Undyne took as the perfect distraction to close the gap between her and Alphys. Despite the large crowd, the kiss was shared privately between the two.

Alphys stumbled back when Undyne released her, her red face pressed deep into her hands.

Undyne frowned. “I’m sorry, I should have-”

She was interrupted by the sound of a rising squeal, like a kettle beginning to boil. The squeal was drowned out as another loud, upbeat song began to play, but this time Alphys let loose, swinging excitedly to the beat. Undyne pumped her fists into the air and ran to join her.

The evening went on as Alphys and Undyne proceeded to, quite literally, tear up the dance floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to thank my angsty teenage self for dropping those song lyrics into a google doc at 9 pm on the eve of 2016.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have not consumed much alcohol in my life. That may or may not be obvious in this chapter.

“Thank you everybody, and have a wonderful evening!” Mettaton called out as the exhausted yet satisfied crowd began to dissipate.

Undyne and Alphys collapsed on each other, their laughter drowned out by the happy murmurings of the crowd. They tossed shreds of carpet into the air like confetti, all wound up from the evening's events.

“And for those in what remains of the V.I.P. section, be sure to join me for the after party!”

“The what?” Alphys chirped.

\---

The after party, as it turned out, was taking place in the penthouse suite of MTT resort.

Aka: Mettaton’s house.

Alphys was feeling a little self conscious again. Mettaton had insisted they make use of the hot tub on the roof, but Alphys had informed him that she hadn’t brought a swimsuit. He had in turn provided her with a very suitable one-piece bathing suit, that just so happened to be covered from top to bottom in hot pink sequins.

“Oh, come on in darling, the waters perfect.” Mettaton gestured from the center of the hot tub. Well, this certainly explained why he had asked for those waterproofing upgrades.

She dipped a toe in, and felt the warmth of the water spread through her foot. She eased in, feeling her muscles relax. Perhaps this wouldn’t be too bad after all.

Undyne had fallen asleep on the edge of the hot tub, with only her arms in the water. Mettaton sat at the center, barely neck deep despite sitting on the very bottom of the tub. He pushed a floating ice filled bucket toward her. She was going to refuse, but then she spotted a peach flavored cooler amongst the others, and her curiosity got the better of her. 

“So, darling, how's life been with the house guest?” Mettaton asked casually. “I noticed he didn’t come tonight.”

“Oh, trust me, we tried.” Alphys sighed. “We even got him all dressed up and everything, well, if you call putting a tie over his regular outfit dressed up. But he dodged last minute.”

“I see.” Mettaton didn’t sound bitter, rather, he sounded concerned. “What does he get up to all day?”

Alphys waved her hand in the air. “Oh, you know, he watches the old recordings of his brother.” 

“I see.” Mettaton said once again. He stretched out an arm and grabbed a plate of cucumber sandwiches off a nearby table, passing them to Alphys. “Here, you probably shouldn’t drink that on an empty stomach.”

Alphys sat quietly, munching on a few sandwiches. Mettaton watched her for a bit, then proceeded with the conversation. “Are you sure that's healthy, him living in the past like that?”

Alphys leaned back, sinking deeper into the water. She looked up at the cavern ceiling, submerging the back of her head in the water. “I doubt it, but I’m too much of a coward to bring it up.”

“Darling, it’s Sans, he won’t bite. He can’t even open his mouth. What’s the worst he could do?”

“That's just it!” Alphys splashed the water with her free hand. “I have no idea! I don’t know a thing about him! I didn’t even realise how miserable he was all the time until just recently! He’s good at hiding things. For all I know he could have some super secret special attack,” she wiggled her fingers in the air for emphasis. “That’ll blast me to smithereens if I ask him too many questions!”

Mettaton sighed, leaning into the water until the back of his head was submerged. His hair flowed back and forth with the movement of the tub’s jets. “We need to do something for these monsters Alphys. Their downright miserable, and my concerts are only proving to be a temporary reprieve.”

“So you noticed too, huh?”

“Of course. If there's anything these last few weeks have taught me, it’s my place in the underground.” Mettaton raised back up, his dripping hair clinging to his neck and the back of his head. “I’m a star, Alphys. I’m supposed to make them happy. Inspire them! I need to be more than a distraction; I need to bring them hope. Give them someone to look up to.”

“Isn’t that what the _king_ is supposed to do?” Alphys asked. She was seriously considering opening another cooler. The black cherry one looked good.

“Yes, but he’s not personal enough! Oh, sure, he makes announcements and promises and the occasional classroom visit, but think about it, how many times have you seen him in the last month?”

Alphys savored the flavor of the artificial black cherry, mulling over Mettaton’s question. “Now that you mention it, I don’t think I’ve seen him once.”

Mettaton smacked the water, a little harsher than he meant to. Undyne snorted as water splashed on her face, but she didn’t wake up. “That’s what I mean! Everyone’s shoving their emotions to the side and hoping they’ll go away, but they're just not going to.”

Alphys swished the deep burgundy liquid around in the bottle, hypnotically following its movement. “I wrote to the king this morning, actually, about this situation.” She looked from the bottle to Mettaton. “I… I think we should have a funeral. Something to honor the dead, and help their families get their emotions out in the open. Everyone’s been keeping their emotions bottled up.” Alphys’ eyes widened. “Pun not intended!” she added hastily.

Mettaton’s lips were pressed thinly. “You better watch out; I think your houseguest is rubbing off on you. As for the funeral, if there's anything I could do to help, be sure to give me a call. You can definitely use my venue.”

Alphys smiled modestly. “Thanks.”

They sat in silence for a bit, until something in Alphys’ slightly blurry head sparked. She sat up, placing the empty bottle on the side of the pool. She leaned forward in the water, crossing her arms over her lap. Mettaton watched her with increasingly concerned curiosity. He tilted his head to the side, silently asking her what she was thinking.

“When's the last time we did this?” the question slid out of Alphys’ mouth calmly.

“Did what, darling?”

“Talked?” Alphys raised her hand out of the water, accidentally splashing water onto the robot's face, he didn’t flinch. “Like, really talked?”

Mettaton frowned. His eyes flicked back and forth as if he was searching his memory. He closed his eyes and accessed some of his recorded memories, his surprised reaction showing he had come up blank. By the time he opened his eyes he couldn’t meet Alphys’ questioning stare. Some of the sparkle that seemed to be embedded into his body was gone, he looked pale. 

“I...I can’t remember.” The sentence was not even the slightest bit dramatized. His voice, which was designed for flair, seemed to have mellowed out. He covered his mouth. The sparkle returned to his face in a guilty blush. When had he begun to drift away from Alphys? Sure, they didn’t always see eye to eye, literally and figuratively, and they didn’t share many common interests, but that hadn’t stopped them from being friends before…

_Before._

Before she built him this body.

Before she helped him reach stardom.

Before he had been swept away into the glitz and glamour of celebrity life.

“ _When was the last time I talked to Bl-_ ’ ‘I’m sorry.” He interrupted his own thought before it could overwhelm him.

Alphys had placed a hand on his shoulder while he had been lost in thought. “It’s… It’s fine, Mettaton.” It hadn't been fine, at least not at the time, but seeing him react so woefully had made her upset as well.

“But I was so _petty_ , dar- Alphys!” His theatrics were back, though his grief seemed genuine. “I just… you did so much for me, and when I finally achieved my dream, I just shoved you to the side. And I didn’t even realize!”

He smacked his forehead. “I was going to call you, I was going to keep in contact, but I just told myself: ‘Maybe later.’ or ‘I don’t have time right now.’, even when I had all the time in the world.”

“I-I shouldn’t have brought it up.” Alphys chided herself, but before Mettaton could reply, her emotions managed to wear down a lock in her brain. The door flew open suddenly, and her words spilled forth like an overfilled closet. “It’s just, it hurt, you know? We were close. I hadn't been so close to someone in ages. It had been nice, having someone to talk to, to put up with my nerdy rambling, to bounce ideas off. But then it just... stopped. You were gone.” She covered her mouth, willing herself to stop talking, but the words kept coming. “And then there was all that stuff with the amalgamates, but I was too scared to tell anyone, so I stopped-” 

She was cut off by her own realization. “I stopped talking…”

“...so I stopped listening.” Mettaton finished the sentence that Alphys hadn’t really had an end for. “I couldn’t get you to talk any more, so I stopped trying…”

“...And I blamed you for not listening, when I wasn’t even saying anything anymore.”

They sighed in unison.

“Looks like we’re both to blame?” Alphys asked tentatively.

“I think so, darling.” Mettaton nodded in agreement.

Alphys scratched her chin. “I was still rooting for you, even if I never said anything.”

“And I, you. Even if I forgot to tell you that in person.”

They sat in apologetic silence, before making eye contact. They both nodded.

Their now silent conversation was interrupted by the ding of the nearby elevator. Burgerpants emerged, bags under his eyes and a tray of heavily food colored burgers balanced on his arm. He grimaced toward the star and his V.I.P. guests, though quickly tried to pull it into a smile. “Now, who wanted Glamburgers at _midnight_?”

Mettaton grinned broadly at Alphys. “Well, I suppose I promised you a party. Shall we get to that?”

Alphys began to shake undyne awake as the volume of the music increased. “Oh, absolutely!” She said, her confidence perhaps slightly aided by a little bit of alcohol.

\---

Undyne was once again asleep, this time with her head on Alphys’ lap. The party had passed in an absolute blur of dancing, karaoke that had likely kept the whole hotel awake, and time spent close to Undyne. Cruising in the back of the MTT limo, Alphys had never felt so chill. It was as if nothing in the world could ever go wrong again.

Mettaton sat, back in his rectangular and more energy efficient form, in the driver’s seat. They had come down to the parking garage to discover Burgerpants passed out in the back seat with a nearly empty bottle of only the most expensive MTT brand wine. He was still lying there, dead to the world. Mettaton, who apparently was the only one who hadn't touched alcohol that night, had opted to take the wheel instead.

Alphys crawled out of the limo at her lab, gently resting Undyne’s head on the seat of the car. She thanked Mettaton for the lovely evening, and he pulled a top hat out of the glove compartment and tipped it, before storing it away again. Alphys waved as he headed for Waterfall.

She stood for a moment in the open air, breathing in the warm smell of the molten rock. Her head was still buzzing and she swayed lightly on her feet. She wasn’t drunk, per say, but she figured she was dangerously close.

The inside of the Lab was pitch black. She set down the package of Glamburgers she had brought for Sans, and a bottle of wine she had snatched for cooking purposes. She searched the wall blindly in the dark, looking for the set of switches. She flipped one, and a dim light flickered on.

She froze at the sight of Sans. 

Brown bottles and empty ketchup packets littered the floor around his feet. The bucket of ice sat on top of his head, and ice cubes drifted down his skull and plopped to the floor. Pages upon pages of nearly indecipherable notes surrounded him. Alphys picked one up. It only had the word ‘Timelines!’ scribbled all over it, becoming messier and more frantic as the page went on.

Collecting herself with a steadying breath, Alphys pulled the bucket off Sans’ head and picked him up, intent on carrying him to bed. It wasn’t a hard task, Sans wasn’t as heavy as he looked, being nothing but bones. She wrinkled her nose as he suddenly exhaled a breath that had gotten trapped in his ribcage. It smelled horribly of fermented barley.

Endogeny and Toby were standing behind the bed, wide awake with their tails between their legs. They whined and sniffed Sans as Alphys placed him in his bed. Whatever he had done tonight, it had frightened them greatly.

Alphys toddled over to the escalator, the lethargy of the alcohol and a stomach full of warm Glamburgers suddenly hitting her full force. Worst of all, her over exercised joints were starting to ache. She flopped face first into her bed, falling unconscious before she even landed.

She didn’t wake up when a pile of bowls collapsed in the night, knocking the monitor awake. And she wasn’t there to see when it flashed to life, filled with the paused image of a smiling child approaching a tall skeleton, whose unsuspecting arms were stretched open wide.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Half (clap) Way (clap) There (clap)!


	12. Chapter 12

Alphys alarm buzzed angrily, finally awakening her from her deep sleep. She pulled it over and squinted at the screen, the light making her head hurt ever so slightly. 

_\- Two missed notifications: Wake up / Eat breakfast, feed Sans and the dogs_

Alphys rubbed her eyes. Had she really slept that long? She wriggled out of her bed only to realize that she had slept in her nice dress. She sighed as she brushed out some of the wrinkles.

She reached back for the zipper, and after a couple of tries freed herself from the dress. With the way her joints were aching it was almost tempting to spend her day in her underwear and not go anywhere, but she had a houseguest. She pulled on some black track pants and a fluffy purple hoodie. Looking in the mirror at her sloppy appearance, she felt a wave of tired amusement. She grinned broadly at herself, stuffing her hands in her pockets. “ _Goodness, I almost look like him, I even have bags under my eyes to match._ ”

The ride down the escalator seemed slower than usual, and she felt herself nodding off. She was at least grateful that her headache wasn’t too bad. Mettaton had been a responsible and experienced partyer, and had made sure she had stayed hydrated.

Upon arriving on the main floor, she was shocked to find that Sans’ mess was gone. The bottles, bucket, ketchup packets, and notes had all mysteriously disappeared, as well as the glamburgers. Sans was lying on his bed, face down, Toby draped over the back of his skull as a sound barrier. The fact that he didn’t need to breathe was proving to be immensely helpful.

Alphys poured a glass of water. She placed the glass beside Sans’ bed as quietly as she could. “ _Maybe I should get him an end table?_ ” she pondered.

Still not feeling very hungry, she muted the monitor and began flipping through the security feed from her lab the previous night. She wasn’t sure if she should pry, but she desperately wanted to know what had happened.

The recordings weren’t necessarily surprising. Around the time Sans had gone missing from the limo he had turned up at the lab, the ice bucket in his hands. He had looked like he was going to spend the night watching recordings again, until his 7th or 8th drink had gotten the best of him. He spent a bit of time playing ‘fetch the ice bucket’ with Endogeny, and drinking ketchup, until the bucket had ultimately ended up on his head. Then his demeanor shifted to frantic, and he had watched the same recording over and over while taking agitated notes on any scrap of paper unfortunate enough to be within reach.

What concerned Alphys, however, was the distortion.

Around the time Sans had become agitated, a blue distortion had begun crossing the screen. Alphys had seen Papyrus do blue magic before, but it had never extended beyond his control, it had never radiated. It wasn’t really a problem, more of an annoyance, as it covered whatever Sans had been watching. Alphys had no idea what had made him so distressed.

Alphys sniffed the air. Speaking of distressing situations…

She nearly gagged as the smell of bones and sweat assaulted her nostrils. Alphys wagered the smell had been a long time coming, and Sans’ running around the previous evening certainly hadn’t helped. She had no idea how a skeleton could sweat, but at this point she didn’t care. Sans was long overdue for a shower.

She knew, however, that a shower would only be a temporary reprieve. He needed fresh clothes as well.

“ _Perhaps Undyne-_ ” 

_Undyne_. Her name triggered a flood of memories that she didn’t even know she had been holding back. Dancing, karaoke, kissing…

Alphys sank into her hoodie, blood rushing to her face. Undyne’s natural confidence and Alphys’ tipsy confidence had made for one heck of an evening. Suddenly she was uncertain if she should go talk to her, or go hide in the trash piles for the rest of her life. Her feelings for Undyne had been clear to her for a while, even if she hid them well (which, unbeknownst to her, she actually didn’t.). But she had been certain the awesome hero of the underground wouldn’t feel the same way.

She took a breath, her conversation with Mettaton coming back to her. She was done with not talking, done with lying. The only way she was ever going to get anywhere with Undyne was by talking to her, and by telling her the truth about how she felt. It scared her, oh sweet heavens, she was terrified, but her lack of communication had only ever made her problems worse.

Plus, the gag from inhaling so deeply also reminded her why else this was important. She held her phone tightly and sent a message before she thought too hard about it.

_\- Undyne, did papyrus ever give you a key to his house?_

\---

Alphys was greeted silently at Undyne’s front door by the scent of hot peppermint tea. 

As they sat, cups in hand, Undyne looked strangely like she was trying to compact herself into a smaller shape. Both of their teacups remained untouched as the silence between them grew unbearably long.

Alphys tried to start a conversation. 

“So… did you hear about the snow in Snowdin?” Alphys asked, realizing afterword how dumb it sounded.

“Yeah, more snow than usual right?”

“Yeah.’ ‘ _Well, that didn’t work._ ”

She tried again, desperately.

“So, um, the amalgamates are doing good with their families…”

“That's good.”

Alphys was getting tired from the false starts at conversation. Undyne tried next.

“So, er, how's your house guest?”

“He’s good. He tore up my house a little last night, but he cleaned it up, so it's all good.”

“Oh.”

Alphys’ patience with the failing conversations finally broke. She needed to get the crushing awkwardness off her chest, and she was going to do it right now. She found herself going over Undyne’s battle strategy.

“ _Size up your opponent._ ” Well, this was Undyne she was facing, but it wasn’t combat. Alphys didn’t see the need to check her battle stats, but she did a mental check over. She made a mock table in her head:

_~ Undyne: Hot Fish Warrior  
Stay calm, you’ve only had a crush on her for, like, a while now._

She felt like slapping herself, she was not helping.

“ _What does this fight mean to you?_ ” Well, she figured, it was only going to determine her entire future with Undyne. No pressure. Nope. None at all.

“ _Draw your magic from your feelings._ ” Well, she didn’t need magic for this, but she tried to use her feelings, her fear, her anxiety, her darn bit of hope, and transform them into fuel for courage. She took the deepest breath she could manage through her constricted throat, trying to ignore the way her soul was sparking with burning dread, and stuttered out a sentence.

“A-about last night…”

“I was just trying to make you feel better!” Undyne’s voice crashed, breaking off Alphys’ sentence instantly. “You looked so nervous and I was having a good time and I wanted you to have a good time too but then we were so close and you were looking very pretty under the lights and-”

Alphys raised a hand in a surprisingly effective attempt to cut her off. She had never seen Undyne look so nervous, she was usually brimming with confidence.

Alphys decided to defuse the situation. “Where did you learn to dance like that?”

Undyne’s confidence returned full force, bringing a toothy grin with it. “With the amount of stuffy events that Asgore throws, you find you need to pick up a thing or two.” She blushed faintly, scratching the side of her head. “But last night I might have gotten carried away, especially with that part where I lifted you over my head. How about you?”

“Me?” Alphys questioned.

“Yeah, you. You didn’t strike me as inexperienced.”

“Well,” Alphys clinked a claw against her teacup. “When I was building Mettaton's new body, he needed some creative ways to test the prototypes. I guess I picked something up.”

“Yeah, you were pretty great!” The grin slid from Undyne's face. “But… I’m sorry if I overstepped. I shouldn’t have gotten carried away like that.”

Alphys smiled. “It’s alright.” She felt herself sinking into her hoodie. “I… I actually wanted to tell you that I…” The last of her sentence was swallowed by the purple fluff.

“You… what?” Undyne cocked her head to the side, and her fin dripped.

Alphys slowly re-emerged from the hoodie. “I’ve kinda sorta had a little bit of a crush on you for a while?”

Undyne’s good eye widened, and the other one sparked more rapidly. “You did?!” Apparently, their mutual crush had been obvious to everyone but the two of them.

“Yeah but,” Alphys sighed, swishing her cold tea into a funnel. “I was afraid to tell you because, well, because I had…” she coughed, the sparking panic in her soul continuing to burn excruciatingly within her. “Because I had lied to you.”

Undyne leaned forward, her frown deepening. “What about?”

The building anxiety exploded painfully in Alphys’ chest, and she spilled. “About nearly everything! I told you manga and anime were human history and I told you seaweed was scientifically important and I told you the bumps in the night that one time were Napstablook looking for a stereo when it was actually the amalgamates and-”

Undyne covered Alphys’ mouth with her glove hand. “That's enough.” She leaned back on her shins, her melting armor making distorted clanking noises as she contemplated what she had just learned. Alphys felt the smoldering ashes of her fear pile up in her gut. She took a sip of the disgustingly lukewarm tea to try and extinguish the figurative cinders.

Undyne finally spoke. “I don’t really care about that, you know? What matters to me is, well, you!”

She gestured her arm at Alphys. “And all that nerdy stuff is just one part of you! You’re inventive, you’re smart, you’re kind! As for what happened with the determination experiments, well, I just know you were trying to do the right thing, even if it went horribly wrong!”

Alphys was stunned. Kind, smart, inventive? She hadn't felt like that for a long time. And the amalgamates? Sure, she had good intentions at heart, but she had thrown science at the wall. Hadn't her irresponsibility been just as bad as malice?

“I-I don’t deserve your praise, Undyne. What happened was horrible. And I had the gall to lie about it too!”

“Sure it was horrible!” Undyne gurgled bluntly. “But you worked hard to make it right, even if it took a while! You have so much potential, Alphys! You’ve just gotta build confidence!” 

“Okay, how's this,” Alphys inhaled. “Doyouwanttogooutwithme?” She released the sentence as quickly as possible, covering her mouth afterward.

Undyne launched herself at Alphys with so much force it broke the back legs of her chair. They laughed, sprawled partly on the floor, partly on the chairs' remains. Alphys couldn’t be happier.

Undyne, however, had one final question. “By the way, about what you said earlier… anime is real, right?”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warning:** This chapter contains a brief moment of a character wishing for death.

Undyne ran a glove-like hand over the table, collecting a layer of dust. She stared at it in distaste, before blowing it off her hand in a cloud. She tisked. “He would never stand for this.” her voice sounded like a stream trickling over rocks.

“I-I know.” Alphys gazed around the room. Aside from the dust it was like a Papyrus museum. It was rather overwhelming.

She closed her eyes, suddenly feeling unexpected tears. “Remember, we're just here for clothes. We shouldn’t touch anything if we don’t need to.”

She wandered to the stairs, half blinded by partial tears that were not quite heavy enough to fall. Arriving at the top, she went against her own orders and peaked inside Papyrus’ room. His computer glowed, it was still open to his social media page. The room was bathed in blue light, making the usually noble, boldly posed figurines look ghostly.

She took a breath and walked across the room to turn it off, accidentally rendering the room almost lightless. As she returned to the door, it felt like the unseen eyes of the action figures bore into her. She felt like an intruder, a lawbreaker in a place she didn’t belong.

She exited the room, hugging herself, rubbing her hands up and down her arms, which felt like they were freezing despite her thick hoodie.

The two made their way to Sans’ room silently, the hall seemed to stretch on longer than it should.

Alphys gripped Sans’ doorknob with a shaking hand. Undyne watched her, scratching her petals nervously. They nodded at each other with confirmation that they hadn’t even realized they needed.

Alphys turned the knob.

_Click_

It was locked.

\---

Now Alphys definitely felt like a criminal. She hung, gripping onto a snow covered tree branch for dear life, as Undyne chipped away at Sans’ window lock with a z-shaped spear. She let out a satisfied “Fuhuhu!” as the lock broke off and the window popped open. She grabbed Alphys by the wrist and, before she could protest, catapulted inside.

They landed with a _boof_ on the smelly, crumpled wad of blankets on Sans’ bed. Alphys scrambled off, vocalizing her disgust, while Undyne rolled with laughter.

“We should do this more often!” she bubbled like a geyser.

“Undyne, you’re in the royal guard for goodness sake!”

Undyne shrugged, then grinned. “What better way to test security? We should do my house next!”

“You want to break into your own house?” Alphys asked as she untangled some of Sans’ shirts and shorts from the trombones in his dresser.

“Hell yeah!” Undyne yelled.

Alphys rooted through the drawer for more hoodies, but couldn’t find any. She looked around the room to see if he had tossed some on the floor. Other than about half a dozen socks, she didn’t see any clothing littering the dusty carpet. There were plenty of other things: like paper, plates of half eaten food, and a rather inconveniently placed treadmill that she was surprised hadn’t been turned into a clothing rack; but no hoodies.

“ _Perhaps it’s one of a kind?_ ” she wondered.

\---

They turned off all the lights, so Sans wouldn’t have to worry about receiving any unpleasantly large electricity bills. With the other lights off, the strands of red and green lights seemed to glow brighter. Alphys and Undyne were mesmerized, unable to take their eyes off the beautiful sight for a time. The darkness of the house’s windows made the once cheery and cozy place look desolate. It was hard to believe that the lively house she used to love watching with her camera had been reduced to this lifeless abode. The human had killed more than monsters that day.

With a discontented sigh, Alphys wrapped her claws around the end of the cord and pulled. The lights went out with a soft _pop_.

The house went dark so fast that it jumpscared her. The structure was no longer cozy or friendly, instead it seemed to loom over her, threatening to devour her. The feelings of sadness and loss that had made it so hard to look away from the light turned to terror in the darkness. The house creeped closer, the wind howling through its boards like a scream. The rattle of the shudders seemed to be whispering: “ _Where are they? What has happened to the ones that made this house a home?_ ”

“I… I can't-” Alphys was dragged from her trance by a hand gripping her arm. Undyne turned her away from the house.

“Are you alright?” her voice trickled like a shallow river.

Alphys forced her gaze back to the house. It no longer seemed threatening, but rather looked like it was sitting in gloom, curled up like an injured animal.

Alphys gripped Undyne’s hand against her arm. “I...I’ll be fine.”

\---

“You went to our house.” The statement was abrupt and incriminating, and the voice delivering it sounded very tired.

Sans sat a short distance away, in the dark. The monitor glowed, filled completely by a shot of Alphys standing in the lab entryway, Sans’ clothes hanging over her arm. 

She had left him with full access to the cameras.

Swallowing her apprehension, Alphys tried to shrug nonchalantly. “You needed more clothes.”

“I could have gotten them.” Sans argued feebly. Alphys met his half-lidded eyes with her own. They both knew there was no way he would have gone if she’d asked.

“Why'd you turn the lights off?”

“You still own that house. The bills still go to you.” Sans’ emotionless exhaustion was starting to rub off on Alphys. There was no point in arguing. She had already been in the house and had already gotten the clothes. The matter was over with. Forgiveness over permission, though she would still need to get to the forgiveness part.

“You should take a shower.” she said dully.

\---

Alphys snatched Sans’ old clothes for the washing machine. She tossed them in with a pile of lab coats already sitting in the machine. She took a moment to look through his hoodie, rummaging in the pockets for anything she wouldn’t want to get caught in the washer. She’d pulled out half a dozen ketchup packets, a good amount of loose change, and a silver key that she assumed must have been his copy of the house key, before her hand brushed against something else, something different.

She wrapped her fingers around a wad of fabric. She hadn’t noticed it at first because it had been nearly indistinguishable from the fabric inside the pocket. She pulled it out, a tense feeling in the pit of her stomach.

It was a scarf. _His_ scarf. Papyrus’ scarf.

Her mind went over her memories of Sans over the past few weeks. Standing, and later sitting at the monitor, one hand flipping through recordings, the other in his pocket.

Alphys examined the scarf respectfully, trying to touch as little of it as possible. Patches of his dust were still clearly visible on it. Alphys felt a panicked urge to put it back in the pocket, as if her holding it were somehow making it less significant. She stuffed it back inside, noting that the dust had settled inside the pocket as well.

She clutched the hoodie, her heart beating fast. Slowly, she put the ketchup, gold, and key back into the pockets as well. Some things, she figured, simply aren't meant to be washed. Regardless, he had _somehow_ managed to get the syrup off, so the jacket was no longer a potential pest attractor, and the smell that had reeked off the rest of his clothes did not seem to stick to his hoodie. She was actually quite surprised to find it didn’t smell unpleasant at all. Just of trees and fast food and fresh fallen snow. She placed it on his bed with some clean clothes.

\---

She was just flipping over a grilled ham and cheese sandwich when she felt… something. She could only describe it as a chilling, though not cold, breeze. She turned around to find that the clothes were gone from Sans’ bed, and the skeleton himself was nowhere to be seen.

She looked through the upper lab, before settling in front of her monitor with one of the sandwiches. As she flipped through the camera, she marveled at the fact that it had been nearly over a month since she had last monitored the underground live. It seemed that slowly building a life of her own had left her very short on time to watch other monster’s lives.

She found him, finally, at the farthest reaches of Snowdin. He was leaning against the old wooden door to the ruins. He was visibly breathing, as steam escaped from his teeth into the frosty air. His head was rested back, and his eyes were closed. One of his hands was burrowed deeply into his pocket while the other knocked at the door. Alphys turned on the sound to see if he was saying anything.

“Knock knock.”

Alphys felt a smile tug at the edges of her mouth, but it was not quite strong enough to combat her frown. Telling knock knock jokes on a random door in the woods, of course Sans would do that.

Sans waited for several minutes, as if he was looking for a reply. A cloud of steam puffed as he sighed, answering a non-existent voice. “Dishes.”

Another moment of silence passed as he sank into the snow with a crunch, now sitting against the door. “Dishes a joke I know you love.”

Alphys frowned even more. Knock knock jokes were very sad when they were one sided.

“Knock knock.” He knocked on the wood again.

Silence.

“You?”

Silence.

“What are you calling for? I’m right here.”

Silence.

“Knock knock.”

Silence.

“Little Old Lady.”

Silence.

“I didn’t know you could yodel.”

Silence.

_Silence._

More Silence.

Someone sobbed.

Sans was crying.

Fat blue tears rolled down his face, discoloring the snow that was piling up around him. He was shivering, both from the sobs that wracked his body and the cold that he didn’t bother to combat. It was one of the great mysteries of monster science as to how a skeleton could _get_ cold, without skin or nerves or, well, anything, but Sans digressed. He hadn't majored in biology, after all, and due to said lack of skin to get frostbite, it didn’t really matter. Papyrus certainly didn’t care.

For a skeleton, Sans figured, every type of cold was _bone_ -chilling.

He gargled out a chuckle through his tears at the pun.

The old lady would have loved it.

His tears bore holes through the snow as it piled around his face. He stopped breathing, trying not to push it off. Maybe, if he was lucky, he would _somehow_ freeze to death out here and be done with it. He could dissolve into the nothingness, or wherever the warm, peaceful place he went to after death was. He could never keep a solid memory of the afterlife, but he knew that if Papyrus had… _gone_ before him, he would be there. It would be nice to be with him again, if only for a moment. 

He twitched, accidentally knocking the snow off his face. A small headache had sparked in his skull upon thinking about the… next time. It was a side effect of trying to hold on to what he knew about the strange goings on with the timeline. After all, the very laws of the time loop seemed to want to dictate that he simply forget about it.

Plus, the knowledge about what it was like to be dead was probably not the best thing to think about. Not that his blurry memory was even an exact representation of death. 

His head twinged again. Okay, no more timeline stuff.

“Knock knock.”

“Who’s there?” another voice rang out, muffled by the snow. The voice was familiar, though he couldn't recognise it through the snow and his headache. Between the piled snow and the frozen tears sealing his eye sockets shut, he couldn’t see either. Perhaps it was an angel coming to carry him to the afterlife, the real one this time.

“You myth.”

“You myth who?”

“I myth the old lady behind this door, I myth my brother, I myth them a lot.”

“I know Sans.” He didn’t resist as he was scooped off the ground. He hung limply as a blanket was awkwardly thrown over him. “I may not fully understand, but I know.” Alphys sighed, carrying the near frozen skeleton back towards the depths of the caverns.


	14. Chapter 14

Communication.

That was the key, wasn’t it?

Alphys rubbed her tired eyes and pressed her fingers over the bridge of her nose. Her vision was blurry from her lack of sleep as well as her lack of glasses. Still, she was too afraid to go to sleep.

She was afraid for her houseguest.

Endogeny let out a tired whine as they nuzzled their head against Alphys’ side. She absently stroked their head and exhaustedly tried to comfort them for the hundredth time. “He’s just asleep, he’s been through a lot.”

_Just asleep._

Alphys reflexively checked over her monitoring devices again, a new bolt of panic striking through her, waking her up just a little.

Normal, everything was normal.

“ _Wake up!_ ” she wanted to scream, but she didn’t have the energy to put her thoughts into words.

Toby yapped. He and Endogeny paced in circles around Sans’ bed, their claws beginning to carve scratches into the floors gloss.

If this went belly up Alphys would have a permanent reminder engraved in her lab.

Mabey she would finally quit and move out.

The only reason she still had her job was because Asgore was grateful for her help during the evacuation.

She smacked her cheeks, trying to bring herself back into focus. Nothing was wrong, the machines attached to Sans’ body by wires and stickers reported that.

So why wouldn’t he wake up?

Alphys was all too familiar with the look of a monster who had fallen down. When Sans had slept through breakfast she hadn't been concerned. When he slept through lunch, she wasn’t worried. When he had slept through dinner, she had grown a little wary.

When he had slept through the next day's breakfast…

She remembered the horror she had felt. Pulling back his blankets to see him just... lying there. Not moving, not breathing. Just plain still.

She may have panicked a little too much. Skeletons didn’t need to breathe, after all, and it required conscious effort, so it’s not like he could keep it up while sleeping.

But, _they_ had looked just like that. Not moving, hardly breathing, pale.

Signs of her panic laid haphazardly around the room. Various tools and furniture shoved out of the way for medical monitors, Sans’ hoodie hanging over her desk chair, the sliced open remains of Sans’ shirt...

The monitor echoed the wavering of his soul, fluctuating up and down with magic. The waves were weak, which had frightened Alphys at first, but they fell well within the range of a healthy monster, albeit one that had rather low hp. Alphys couldn’t get exact numbers from the device, but they fell in a suspiciously low range.

Like, a 1 to 5 range.

Perhaps Alphys had been foolish to be so afraid of him. Then again, he practically radiated secrets. Who knew if he had something hidden up his sleeve?

At least he could use his magic.

She slapped her cheeks again. “ _Focus!_ ”

What had she been thinking about? Oh, yes. Communication.

She wagered it had been working fairly well for her in other scenarios, why not this one? Considering they had been house mates for nearly a month and a half, it seemed as if barely a few sentences had passed between them. Sans had just been, and Alphys had let him be.

After all, that was the Sans way, right?

Her sleep deprived mind slipped vividly back into the depths of her memory. Her and Sans had gone to the same University in New Home, somehow she always forgot that. She was two years his senior (in school terms at least), though they had often been in the same classes. She hadn't really known him _that_ well, they had been opposites in the social world. She had been the dedicated student, he the partyer. School legend has it that he hadn't missed a single party in all his time there, even if there were more than one of them happening at the same time.

Alphys had been regrettably dragged to one or two of those parties by her more sociable acquaintances. Still, she had admired Sans from a distance, as everyone did. He was the only person she had known who could tear up the town and still look lazy while doing it. He had also been the only person she knew who could pull two all-nighters and ace an exam with a hangover.

Granted, he _had_ needed to go to the hospital after that one.

He had been a legend, and she, a bright-eyed hopeful student full of potential.

She leaned into her hands. “What the hell happened?” she half laughed.

“Who knows?”

Alphys composed herself and slid her glasses back on, before turning to face the finally awakened skeleton.

“Ohh, my head.” he groaned, tugging at the cords attached to his ribs. “What happened?”

“I was afraid you had, well,” Alphys gulped. “Fallen down.” She reached over to help him with the cords.

A look of distress crossed Sans’ face, his smile tightening guiltily. It was washed away quickly as he seemed to return to ease, shoving away whatever he had been thinking about. “Nah,” he did his best to pull a mischievous smile. “You’re not going to get rid of me that easily.”

Alphys snorted. _Of course._ He had been thinking something important but had pushed it away for a sort of joke. If he thought he was going to get by her so easily he was mistaken. She knew what to look for, none of his expressions could remain hidden from her now trained eyes. He had been upset about something.

And yet, how could she confront him about it?

Communication was the key, but she needed back up. 

Time for a trip to the library.

\---

Alphys gripped the book as tightly as she could as it once again threatened to be jostled from her hands into the river. She flipped the pages cautiously as the boat tottered.

The rather oversized, slightly water damaged book of conversation starters was not proving to be all it was cracked up to be. Having been taken from the ‘recovered human books’ section limited quite a few of the options. She had skipped the section on weather all together, and was skimming through the health inquiry section. She was considering diving deeper into the more advanced sections of the book, which outlined conversations for deep thinking, politics, and even some rather interesting science theories. Still, she was afraid of coming off too strong and scaring Sans away from conversation. She wanted him to warm up to her, not pull away.

“Tra-la-la,” the voice of the River Person echoed off the cavern walls as they sang a haunting melody. “Tra-la-la, looking to chat with a clam shell?” 

Alphys blinked. “N-no? I just want to talk to Sans. He’s staying at my house.”

“I know, Tra-la-la.” the river person chatted on. “Talking to one with a zipper for teeth is a challenge I do not envy. People like their secrets, Tre-le-le.”

“What should I do?” Alphys propped her head in her hands, her elbows leaning on the open book’s pages.

“Perhaps,” Alphys could swear she saw something sparkle under the River Person’s hood. “A lavish luncheon to loosen locked lips?”

Alphys looked at the River Person, her eyes half lidded and her eyebrows raised.

River Person seem to sag slightly at the disappointing reaction to their alliteration. “Tree-la-lee,” they sighed, straightening up. “The quickest way to someone's heart is through their stomach.” They cocked their head to the side. “Metaphorically of course, as I suppose Sans is rather gutless.”

Alphys scratched her head. “Are you related or something?”

“Tro-ho-ho! Not in the slightest!” The River Person laughed. “We are merely kindred spirits in the power of punning and awesome alliteration!” The twinkle was back under their hood. “And I, of course, am also the master of metaphors!”

\---

“Like, Hi Alphys!” the raspy voice of Bratty echoed through the back alley.

“Oh my gosh, it's like, the doc herself!” Cattys rough and tumble voice squealed as well. “To, like, what do we owe the pleasure?”

“I’m just here looking for some rare junk. Have you found any good cooking appliances lately?” Alphys’ trash hunts had provided rather mediocre results as of late. Bratty and Catty were always a last chance resort when it came to good garbage. They liked to raid the dump early, and they had a habit of snatching some of the good stuff.

“Oh my gosh, what a coincidence!” Bratty reached under the counter. “Look at this!” She clanked a heavy appliance onto the counter.

“A _bone_ -fide human crock pot!” Catty cheered.

Alphys looked the contraption over. The pot and lid were still in one piece, as was the base. It was scratched and the pot was a little burnt in some places. Still, she wouldn’t be sure it was in working order until it was plugged in. It had been thrown away for a reason. Judging by the brick pattern on the outside, it was rather old. More modern human appliances were sleek black or stainless steel. She hoped it had been tossed for being outdated, and not because of a catastrophic failure, much like her waffle maker. She was rather grateful for Humankind's seeming lack of thriftiness.

Catty cleared her throat. “Er, _bone_ -fide, because Sans is living at your house?”

Bratty coughed out a laugh. “Cha-ha, ha ha, good one Catty!” She elbowed the cat in the ribs, and Catty doubled over, grimacing.

“Thank you.” She wheezed.

“So anyway,” Bratty turned to Alphys as Catty recovered. “What's the scoop on that?”

“Yeah,” Catty straightened up, still clutching her side. “Give us the deets!”

“Not many ‘deets’ to give.” She fiddled in the pockets of her jeans, searching for her gold. “He doesn't want to go home, and I don’t blame him, so he’s staying at my house.”

“Is he partying it up?” Catty was leaning over the counter, uncomfortably close to Alphys face. “He’s like, a party legend!”

“And It’s been years since we’ve seen him in action!” Bratty sighed, baring her teeth at a seemingly happy memory.

Alphys chuckled softly. She remembered them. The sneaky junior high students attending a university party. She remembered their wide starry eyes and mischievous grins. They had steered clear of the alcohol themselves, thank goodness, but were not above cheering Sans on as he outcompeted his fellow drinkers. Alphys had hated the loud noise and cramped crowds, but she was somehow always at the front of the crowd, dragging Sans home after a wild night.

She had been his designated driver _if_ she had attended, which was not often.

Why weren't they closer friends? She had watched him more than many others when he had moved to Snowdin, simply because he was a familiar face, and yet she was certain she had never had a worthwhile conversation with him. They had simply existed with each other, helping each other out of some weird self-imposed obligation, but never actually getting to know each other.

That needed to change.

“How much for the pot?”

\---

Sans sniffed the air for the hundredth time. He was trying to act distant, watching the recordings like usual and trying to slip back into the regular routine.

And Alphys’ cooking was being rather distracting. 

Alphys hummed a smug tune as she caught him trying to look over the desk at what she was cooking, but she stood in front of it. This was her shot, she was going to have an illuminating conversation with him over this, the most nefarious meal she had ever cooked.

“ _Size up your opponent._ ” Well, she wasn’t going to invade his privacy by checking his stats, so she just did a mock check in her head.

_~ Sans: Skeleton  
He has secrets, but can they be revealed through the power of food?_

She snickered to herself. “ _What does this fight mean to you?_ ”

Well, she hoped, it meant she could finally do something for Sans. Her gleeful humming petered out, and she stopped stirring the pot for a moment. 

Doubts began to inch into her head. What was she doing?

Why wasn’t she taking this more seriously? Sans wasn’t upset because of some trivial matter. It went far deeper than that. It was the loss of his brother.

And, Alphys suspected, it might be even deeper than _that_.

Here she was, whistling and stirring and cooking this meal like it was going to make everything better. So what if he liked it? Why on earth would this get him to spill his deepest secrets? It was stew.

Sans sniffed the air again, and the Dogs followed suit.

“ _What does this fight mean to you?_

“ _It means I get to share a good meal with a potential friend. It means that I might have the slightest chance of finding out what is hurting him so much. It means I might be able to do something, for_ once _._

“ _Then draw on that courage you've been building and fight!_ ”

She aggressively scooped the stew into bowls. She placed some down for the dogs, then placed two on her desk for Sans and herself. And then she waited.

Sans was expecting her to bring it to him at the monitor. She waited.

It smelled really good. She waited.

Finally, he got up and tried to grab the bowl to take it with him. She grabbed his wrist. He stared. She waited.

He sat down at the desk on his folding chair, which she swore was at the monitor a moment ago.

She released his wrist, he didn’t flee.

“Do you want some cheese?” She offered, pushing over a plate of grated cheddar.

He sprinkled it on silently, letting it melt a little before finally raising a spoonful to his teeth. He kept his wary eyes on her.

He took a bite.

“Damn.” he whispered.

Alphys smiled victoriously.

Frankfurter stew, the perfect weapon against Sans. She had even substituted some of the tomatoes for ketchup. The little bit of MTT brand wine she had added probably didn’t hurt either, though the alcohol would have cooked off by now.

She ate some of her own, and she waited.

“ _Now or never!_ ”

“Sans, I think we need to talk.”

Sans stopped scarfing the stew, a string of melting cheese connecting his teeth to his spoon. His eyes had gone dark.

Alphys shuddered. “Well, that went south fast.”

Sans relit his eyes, and continued to eat the stew a bit slower. “About what?” He asked nonchalantly.

Alphys seized up at the question. She had been so focused on making it this far she hadn't actually thought this part out.

“Uh… science?” She offered meekly, not quite ready to dive into the heat of the conversation.

“What about it?”

“Well, we went to the same university. You were in nearly all my classes. You have to know something about it.” She scratched her chin. “You were better at it than me.”

He laughed, an impressive feat with a mouthful of food. “Those days are long behind me, _Doctor_.” he emphasized.

“I could call you the same.” she tried to tease back.

“No, actually you couldn’t.”

Alphys dropped her spoon with a clank. “What?”

“I failed the final exam.” he didn’t look up from his food. “I didn’t even show up.” he popped the ‘p’.

“You didn’t?” Alphys had taken the exam in a separate room, per request.

“Funny, huh?” Sans picked at his stew, absently separating the hot dogs from the vegetables. “I wrote all my papers, aced all my tests, and had… _decent_ attendance for all those years, and I never showed up to finish what I started.” He chuckled throatily, despite not having one. “The start of a trend, I suppose.”

“Why did you quit?” Alphys’ throat had gone dry. The closest drink was the purple MTT bottle mere inches away, but Alphys resisted. He was talking, she had succeeded. Now she just needed to keep it going.

“Someone close to me,” he dropped his spoon into his bowl and watched it sink. “Or rather, the lack thereof.”

“Who?”

Sans rubbed his head, growing irritated. “Who even knows? It’s not like he actually exists.”

Alphys’ face scrunched up. “What do you-”

Sans was clutching his head now. “Forget it!” he exclaimed, pain present in his voice. “It doesn't matter and it's complex science that no one really knows anything about!”

Alphys frowned. It clearly mattered.

Someone Sans was close to? Did she know them?

Sans had had quite a few buddies in university. Some were companions, others just partiers, though the list did criss-cross. 

She went through faces, scenarios. Parties, classes, hanging out in halls. Nothing seemed unusual. All those friends were still alive and kicking.

Still, something about her memories suddenly felt off. Small details. Sans talking to an empty desk, an empty chair in the hall even though people were standing, an empty seat at the bar while monsters were counting shots, the feeling of occasionally dragging two people to her car.

A face flashed in her head suddenly. A pointed grin. Eyes as wide and inquiring as Sans’ own had been. A tall, intrigued specter, dressed in black and kneeling to offer her advice on her latest project…

She felt a snap in her head. Searing pain shot through her brain and the memories tried to flee like frightened rodents.

Sans was on his feet at once. He raced to her aid. “Dr. Alphys!”

She shoved away his hands as he tried to reach for her in an attempt to do… something. He didn’t know what.

“Sans I… I remember!” She clawed at her head, searching for a name. “He was so much older than us, he was the royal scientist, but he was also a student…”

Sans seemingly choked. “He was going for a second doctorate.”

“What was his name?” Alphys vocalized her distress.

“Dr.-” Sans started, but Alphys cut him off.

“Wing Ding!”

Her head exploded internally. She thought coming up with a name would put a stop to the pain, but it kept growing.

“Don’t think about it!” Sans hollered.

Alphys took a deep breath and tried to file away the memories without losing them. She panicked as she felt them slip away. She tried to grab them again, reigniting the pain. She let them go, slowly, loosening her grip, they didn’t fly away as fast this time. She laid them down on the floor of her mind, and watched as they inched away.

“What were we talking about?” she asked wearily, before passing out.


	15. Chapter 15

Alphys woke up with her face pressed against the table. Sans was still beside her, watching her with uncertainty. The pain in her head was gone. Why had her head hurt in the first place? Oh yeah, she had remembered something, something important. Pain drew in around the edges of her mind.

What had she remembered? Someone was missing, right? Yes, the old royal scientist… whatever his name was.

She pulled herself back up again, and Sans let out a sigh of relief. Alphys groaned, both from the dissipating pain and the fact that she had landed in her stew. She picked an onion off Mew Mew’s face. “I really liked this shirt!”

“Eh, don't _stew_ over it, I’m sure it’ll wash out.” Sans seemed relieved to have found an excuse to make a pun.

Alphys chuckled, despite herself. Something about Sans nonchalant behaviour after the shocking experience moments ago was comforting. Perhaps that was why he made so many puns. “I think you’re underestimating the staining power of ketchup.”

“Paps is always able to get it out.” He shrugged. He froze, his eye sockets going dark, not from an attempt at intimidation, but rather a petrifying self realization. He had talked about Papyrus casually, like he was at home, folding laundry, and not, well, _dead_. He didn’t know if it was the sudden slip up, or that he realized he was going numb to the death of the people he loved most that terrified him.

“ _What if this is the time they don’t reset? Or what if they decide to stop when everyone you care about is dead?_ ” his own cynical voice asked.

“ _They’ll keep resetting, they get bored easily._ ” he told himself. That was just it, wasn’t it? One horrifying idea to another. First, the knowledge that time was resetting in general had been terrifying. Then that he was powerless to stop it. Then the realization that at some point, it would stop. His data said so.

And that was perhaps the worst fear of all. The fact that the people he loved had been slaughtered countless times without even realising it was unsettling enough. But what if the ending, the reset to end all resets, the timeline to stop all timelines…

Was one of these?

What if it stopped, leaving Papyrus dead? Leaving Undyne or Alphys dead? What if the final timeline came through, and he was left alone, in the empty underground? Alone and forgotten with no way out. Alone with only himself for company. He would go mad.

Unbeknownst to the human, and to his own disgust, he too had become reliant on the resets.

They were awful, they took away any reason to try doing anything. They made daily life an exercise in futility and filled the air with the tension of ‘when?’.

But…

But.

They brought everyone back to life. They returned the underground back to its original, hope filled self. His brother would gripe about his puns and lazy behaviour like always. The lady would be on the other side of the door, waiting for him to visit, to tell jokes, to laugh the beautiful howling laugh he had longed to hear the night before. He would once again be surrounded by people who loved and cared for him, people who had no idea what _hell_ he had just gone through.

Sans envied them.

He didn’t know what he would do without them, without the hope that they would be there once again, in their usual place like nothing had even happened. He needed that hope, the hope that the loss was only temporary. 

Warm, pleasant, blurry memories flitted around the edge of Sans mind. He could remember laughs and bad food, shared with someone he considered his friend. Times he had thrown his knowledge to the wind and allowed himself to be slightly happy. The bright, rosy colors of a sunset on the surface. 

The worst possible ending.

“Sans?” Alphys was trying to get his attention without startling him. “Sans, are you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” he said. The easiest lie.

“How long has this been going on?” 

Sans panicked. Had he been speaking out loud? No, no he hadn't. She was asking about the old doctor.

How long had it actually been? Timelines made it hard to keep track of, well, time.

“Since a little before the final exam day, when he was… lost.” Sans couldn’t come up with numbers, so this seemed like the next best thing. “I was there. I suppose that's why I was able to hold on to a few memories. You don’t see something that horrible with your own eye sockets and simply let the universe, or whatever, take off with your memories.”

“I can’t believe I forgot.” Alphys winced, trying to think about the situation in broad terms. “I mean, the position of royal scientist became conveniently open almost right after I graduated, and I didn't even _think_ that was a little odd?”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it. No one else remembers.” He shrugged. “And you won't either, once that human gets bored of being dead.”

“No wonder you-” Alphys cut herself off. “Sorry.”

Sans shrugged, waving his arms forward. “Don’t worry about it.” If she thought the Doctor was the cause of his problems, then he was in no hurry to correct her. He was just the tip of a rather big iceberg and Sans didn’t want her prying below the surface. He knew how she would react if she found out about the timelines, and Sans just wanted to ride out the rest of this one nice and slow and relaxed. Between the echo flowers and the concert night, he’d had enough fuss for this timeline.

“But it’s not right that I just forgot!” Alphys seemed to be getting frustrated. Sans figured it was time to cool the conversation. Besides, he wanted to get back to the recordings before she tried to dig deeper.

“Well, now you remembered.’ ‘ _For the first time, actually_.” Sans didn’t recall anyone _ever_ remembering the Doc, but then again, the conversation had always flowed to timelines before anyone considered a non-existent entity. “So try not to... er... _fire_ -get it.”

Alphys snorted. “Sans, that pun wasn’t even applicable!”

Sans pointed a finger gun at her as he headed back towards the monitor. “I know. Just a little throwback.” He grabbed the folding chair, its legs squeaking obnoxiously across the floor. Thinking, or at least, tiptoeing around thinking about the Doctor would keep Alphys distracted for a while, he hoped. He felt slightly bad about dangling Gaster like a carrot, but he simply had better things to do, and by that, he meant a whole lot of nothing. No use starting today what could be undone tomorrow.

Alphys, on the other hand, was exhilarated. The very Idea of what might have happened to the Doctor made her want to throw on her lab coat and get researching. Theories formed and danced around in her head. Perhaps she could even figure out how to bring him back. Then, just maybe, Sans would be happy.

“ _Just like you freed everyone from the underground and made them happy?_ ” her own condescending thoughts snided.

Just like that, Alphys’ excitement burst, falling around her in shreds. What was she thinking? She couldn’t go back to experimenting. With her track record she’d probably bring back the Doctor as an amorphous blob.

Still, A shred of her previous eagerness persisted, and her fingers were itching to do some science. She could do a simple experiment, something she wouldn’t screw up. Ideas flooded in, but her fear filled her fantasies with explosions and fire and other horrible disasters.

Sighing, she dragged herself up and dug around under her desk for... something. Her hands grasped a small glass bottle and a small box. Baking soda and vinegar, the oldest trick in the book. She poured some of the powder into a mostly clean bowl, and poured the vinegar into it, watching it fizzle up and flow over the sides. She snorted at herself. A baby could do this. She should try something a _little_ more extreme.

She was too afraid to use real scientific ingredients, so she just began mixing whatever she found under her desk. She tossed some flour, some of the baking soda, and sugar into another empty bowl. But those were not going to do anything by themselves, they were completely non-reactive. Her fingers wrapped around a stick of butter and she quickly peeled off the wrapper and tossed it in as well. Nothing happened, other than a puff of displaced flour. She took a crack at mixing everything together with her claws, but the mixture was dry and crumbly. It needed some sort of binding agent. She ran to the fridge, grabbing a carton of eggs. She glanced around the fridge, deciding on a whim to grab some of the human vanilla she had recovered, wondering if it would have any interesting effects on her aimless mixture of ingredients. She also spotted a chocolate bar, and grabbed it as well, shrugging and throwing caution to the wind.

The eggs provided the desired result, turning the concoction into a goopy compound. The vanilla did absolutely nothing, much to her disappointment. She unwrapped the chocolate, looking between it and the bowl. She didn’t want to throw it in as one solid piece. She broke it up, melting chocolate smearing all over her fingers. She wiped her hands absently on her jeans as she looked at what she had created.

It was a gooey, chocolate chunk filled mess of ingredients. Other than mix together, they hadn’t really done anything.

She pondered one last option, adding heat. She wasn’t sure about that idea, fearing the mixture might somehow explode. She knew it wouldn’t. The butter would melt. The moisture along with the baking soda would cause it to rise. The sugar would caramelize. Nothing in the mixture was set to explode, but she was worried all the same.

She pushed her fear to the side. She had started this weird kitchen experiment, and she was going to see it through. 

She pressed a few buttons on the side of her fridge. She had turned the freezer portion into a sort-of oven while she had been fixing up Undyne’s fridge. With the amount of freezers she had in the lab, she didn’t really need one on the main level. She looked between the bowl and the heating oven. She realised that the plastic bowl would melt in the oven; she should put the mixture on something else, and possibly spread it into smaller portions so that if something did go wrong it wouldn’t be catastrophic.

She dug up a tray and scooped a few handfuls of the concoction onto it before shoving it into the oven.

She sat back in her desk chair, contemplating what she had done. She had just mixed together a bunch of random things and shoved it into her oven. Had she lost her marbles? Hundreds of things that could have or could still go wrong flowed through her head, but she forced herself to wait. She didn’t know what she was waiting for, but she had to wait.

Slowly but surely, an alluring scent began to waft through the air. Alphys couldn’t quite place it, but it was so familiar, like she had smelt it several times in passing.

She once again heard the hollow snort of Sans smelling the air. The room went silent as he paused the monitor. She turned to see him covering his mouth with his spare hand, a little bit of saliva dripping through his teeth. Alphys cringed, she didn’t know skeletons could drool, and that was something she would have preferred to go her whole life without knowing.

She could understand why, though, the scent from the oven was heavenly. She grabbed some oven mitts and went to pull the tray out of the oven.

She pulled it out and stared at it in silent shock. No wonder it smelled so familiar.

Cookies. She had baked cookies.

By accident.

In hindsight, she figured it should have been obvious. She had slightly known what she was doing. A binding agent, a rising agent, something to make it melty, something to make it sweet.

She pressed an oven mitted hand to her forehead. She had been doing chemistry. Simplified chemistry, but chemistry nonetheless.

Sans tried his best to saunter up without looking over eager. He wiped his teeth on his sleeve. “Geez, Doc. Warn me next time you’re gonna pull a stunt like this.” He snatched several cookies off the tray, shoving most of them into his empty pocket and one into his face.

Alphys slowly reached for one, but recoiled when her nerves prickled from the heat. Sans didn’t have skin or a tongue to worry about burning, she did.

She would have to wait just a little longer.


	16. Chapter 16

Crumbs flew across the table as Undyne ravenously devoured the entire container of cookies Alphys had brought her.

“Holy crap, you made these?” she didn’t speak between bites, rather during them. She melted slowly over the table into a near puddle, humming with bliss. “You gotta show me how sometime!”

“Oh, they’re not that impressive.” Alphys blushed under the praise. “They’re just chocolate chip cookies, they’re not that hard to make.”

“Yeah, but you made them without a recipe!” Undyne licked the last few crumbs out of the container. “Whenever I toss random stuff into a pot it usually just combusts. Not that it doesn't turn out awesome nonetheless!”

“You know, we should cook together again. I had a lot of fun last time. It’s been a while.”

Undyne stopped short at Alphys’s suggestion. Alphys recognized the hesitation. Undyne bore the same expression she had had during their garbage dump conversation about a week ago. Loss of confidence, it was so weird and mildly disturbing to see on Undyne. In fact, Alphys had noticed Undyne twitching into this expression more often as the weeks progressed. Something was bothering her, increasingly so.

Undyne placed the plastic tub down with a _clack_. “That’s a great Idea! Especially since we're dating now!” her face shifted into a smile. “Nothing brings people closer than cooking!”

She slid across the table and wrapped an arm around Alphys’ neck, rubbing her fist into the top of Alphys’ head. Alphys tried in vain to tug away from the noogie, but she could feel herself grinning.

“But first, I think you know what time it is!”

“Is… is it training time?” Alphys asked meekly.

“It’s training time!”

\---

Alphys stood nose to nose with the dummy, as per usual. Undyne had slowly been moving her closer and closer, so that her first magic attack was guaranteed to connect.

Alphys tugged on her emotions. Desperation. Want. Hope.

Nothing.

Alphys stifled a sigh. Her training over the past few weeks at least hadn’t proven fruitless. She could feel her magic now. A warm, sizzling pool somewhere between her heart and her stomach. She could feel it churning, she could swirl it around and feel it spin.

But she couldn’t draw anything out.

It felt strangely... stuck. As if something was wedged deep inside her body, blocking it off. Whenever she and Undyne trained, it grew more agitated, like shaking a soda bottle, but none of her best efforts could get it to form into anything. No attacks, no shields, no healing spells. Nothing.

She grumbled, lightly punching the dummy nose pressed into her face. Its head teetered slightly, then wobbled back into place.

“I got nothing.” Alphys backed off, her hands raised in the air.

“Ah, come on, at least punch it harder than that.” Undyne was lounged out nearby, her legs and hands merged into a puddle of boredom.

Alphys drew back her hand and gave the dummy the hardest punch she could throw. It landed on it’s back with a slight clunk.

“There you go, you’re getting it!” Undyne yelled, straightening herself up so her hands were visible. She lazily summoned a jagged spear that crashed into the dummy’s chest, piercing it.

Undyne suddenly looked unsettled. The light in her melted eye flickered brightly, causing a tiny blue spear to shine out before it dissipated. Her teeth were clenched tightly as she launched another spear at the dummy, her body pulled up to its full height.

Alphys stared. She remembered a scene like this. A body, lying on its back, pierced with a spear; the tall figure of Undyne looming over it, ready for the next move.

Alphys stood on the tips of her toes and reached up, gripping Undyne’s shoulder tightly, panicking as her hand sank several inches into her armor. She watched as the shiny liquid metal flowed closed over her yellow scales. Her fingers began to go numb, as if her hand being sealed within Undyne’s waxy shoulder was cutting off blood circulation. Alphys was afraid that if she didn’t pull away soon, she might never be able to. Still, she could feel the tenseness in Undyne’s melted form. Her very heartbeat seemed to reverberate through her body and into Alphys’ arm, as if Undyne's heart was also pushing blood through Alphys’ veins.

Despite her better judgement, Alphys wrapped her other arm around Undyne’s waist. She held her tight, lightly shushing her and telling her everything was alright.

“But they killed him!” Undyne was howling, her voice stirred up like waves, like wind, like a hurricane. “Him and everyone else. None of them did anything to deserve it! What did they ever do to them? What did _he_ ever do to them? He was kind, he was welcoming, he believed in them, Alphys, _believed_ in them! He deserves vengeance, they all deserve vengeance!”

“You’ve already avenged them.” Alphys was whispering, yet her voice seemed to cut through the storms Undyne was shouting.

“Then why?” Undyne was melting again, her rekindled determination going out like a match in the wind. “Why do I feel this way? Why do I feel so empty?” Her head sank into Alphys arms, and Alphys kissed her forehead.

“Because you can’t bring them back. I know, Undyne, I _know_! Sometimes we want nothing more in life then to go back, knowing what we know now, and warn ourselves before we make mistakes, or fix them ourselves before they happen. I can't tell you how often I’ve wanted to build a time machine and warn myself about my mistakes, but I can’t!” tears were forming in Alphys’ eyes. She had spent too long living in the past, and now that she was finally learning to face the future, she didn’t want others to get left behind. “You can’t turn back time, you just have to learn to move forward.”

Undyne’s body solidified and ejected the parts of Alphys that had melted into it. The two of them sat there, Undyne half melted and trying unsuccessfully to be stone faced, and Alphys, crying but feeling her tears run low. She had cried so much in her life, more times than she cared to recall. Wasted tears with no witnesses. Alphys knew it wouldn’t be easy. Undyne, Sans, the other monsters, herself, everyone was grieving in private. Alphys didn’t want it to be this way anymore. She didn’t want anyone else to have to cry with no one to console them. She didn’t want anyone to feel alone like she had.

Alphys clung to Undyne. Enough was enough.

“I’m so happy I have you.” Undyne whispered, her face resting on Alphys’ shoulder. Alphys didn’t let go of her for a long time.

\---

By the time Alphys headed for home, Undyne was back to her bubbly, confident self. Perhaps even more bubbly and confident than before. Her tears and grieving had seemed to take a weight off her chest. She wasn’t completely better, of course. Alphys knew that she couldn’t heal _that_ fast, no one could, but getting her feelings out was a start.

That's what they all needed.

Alphys felt a burning desire to finally put some thought into planning the funeral. She realized that even _she_ had been putting it off, trying to dig up other problems instead.

She was most of the way there anyway. All she had to do was call Mettaton and book a time to use his concert hall in New Home. After that came the more time-consuming part. She didn’t want to just send a mass text to tell people, this required something more personal. She wanted to send letters.

She laced her fingers together in anticipation. This needed to be done. She could feel her magic bubbling again, the slightest bit of determination stirring it. She wanted, no, _needed_ to do this. She wasn’t going to stall any longer. It was time.

She took long, striding steps, trying to get to the river boat as fast as possible. Suddenly her foot got caught on something protruding from the ground. She fell forward, her hands separating and flailing. Her nose smacked into the stone floor before she could catch herself. She rolled over, rubbing her nose, blood staining her hand. She reached around on the floor, trying to find what she had tripped over. Her hand ran over the offending object. It felt like a tree root.

“ _There aren't any trees in Waterfall…_ ”

It was the last thing she thought before a vine struck her across the face, and everything went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Every Writing Teacher I've Had Ever:** You can't add a new character in the third act!!!
> 
> **Me, Writing This Fic, Apparently:** 🎵how bout i do anyway?🎵


	17. Chapter 17

“Come on, I didn’t hit you that hard!”

Alphys wavered back into consciousness. Her nose and forehead hurt. The calming sound of flowing water echoed nearby, and she wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep.

Cold water was suddenly splashed in her face, and she inhaled sharply from shock. She sputtered from the water and blinked her eyes open. She tried to wipe away the droplets on her glasses, only to be greeted by another splash of water.

“Woops,” a snide voice grumbled. “Good, you’re awake. Finally!”

Alphys could barely make out her captor through her water blurred glasses. He seemed to be... standing on the side of the wall? No, he was stuck _in_ the wall. She could make out what appeared to be a tall green body, and he seemed to have a yellow head. Alphys couldn’t tell what kind of monster he was.

She tried to move forward for a closer look, but found she was stuck against the wall. She looked down, now noticing that something green was wrapped around her waist. That was also when she took notice of just how thin the ledge she was standing on was, and just how wild the rapids of the river were below.

She squeaked, curling her toes around the edge of the ledge as she made flailing attempts to find something to hold onto. Her hands and tail ran over nothing but smooth blue rock. It seemed the green thing was the only thing keeping her from falling.

She gingerly ran a hand over it, keeping the other pinned to the wall. It had a fairly smooth, almost waxy texture. Though it was cold, it still seemed embedded with some form of life. 

“Ahem!” the high-pitched voice of her captor demanded her attention. “If you are quite _done_ freaking out, I don’t have much time to waste.” He tapped his chin with a green limb. “Or maybe I do? That's the thing, I don’t know anymore!”

Alphys rubbed a sleeve over her glasses. She was starting to make out the details of her captor. His ‘body’ was actually just one long green segment, and his head seemed to be made of… petals?

Oh no.

“What's the matter Doctor.” the flower sneered. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”

“You're the... you’re…” Alphys stuttered.

“Flowey the flower! Your wonderful creation!” Flowey dipped his head down, as if bowing. “At your service.” he added sarcastically.

“What do you want?” Alphys asked, removing her hand from what she now knew was Flowey’s stem.

“Doctor, Doctor, Doctor. Can’t an old creation say ‘hi’ to it’s creator?” He asked with a smirk. His expression turned sour. “Where are they?”

“W-what?” Alphys stuttered, gasping as Flowey tightened his grip.

“You heard me, where are they?” Flowey demanded.

“Who?!” Alphys wheezed.

“Chara! Where are they?” The edges of Flowey’s mouth split open as he pressed his face towards Alphys’, baring his sharp, jagged smile.

“You mean, from the story?” Alphys pulled away as best she could. “Aren't they dead?”

Flowey’s voice doubled over. “No, they were just here! The human! I saw you and your singing tin can carry them into the lab about a month or so ago!”

“They’re dead too!” Alphys cried. She let out a small scream as Flowey’s grip suddenly loosened, causing her to fall a few inches forward. Her claws dug into his stem, scratching oozing gashes. He recovered from his shock and tightened his grip once again. 

“No, no, they're not dead!” he denied. “If they were, I would be the most determined thing down here, but I can't save or reset. They must be waiting for me to do something.”

“What?” Alphys felt lost. What was this flower going on about? 

“That's just it! I have no idea!” Flowey snapped, misinterpreting Alphys’ question. He turned his face away while he was thinking. “Maybe… no… or perhaps… nah.” His head dipped down. “We never were very good at coordinating our plans.”

He glanced around for a bit, his eyes once again settling on Alphys. Suddenly they widened. “Of course! I’m such an idiot!” He bobbed his head toward Alphys, his petals fluttering excitedly. “Doctor, _do_ I have a proposition for _you_!”

“I’m not interested.” Alphys protested, and was met with a rough squeeze from Flowey’s stem. She gasped to recover her lost breath, instinctively clawing more cuts into the stem. Flowey continued as if nothing had happened.

“You see doctor, there’s a few little trinkets lying about somewhere in the castle. I want them.”

“What?” Alphys was getting sick of asking the same question.

“Oh, you know, a few little…” Flowey stretched his jaw into a grin. “Souls.”

Alphys froze, or at least, became more still than she already was. “W-what do you want with those?”

“That is not, and _never_ will be, any of your concern, doctor!” Flowey spat. “What is of your concern is that _you_ are going to get them for me.”

“D-do it yourself!” Alphys stammered her response, her claws tightening into the scratches she had caused. 

Flowey’s eyes widened in amusement. “Aren't you the bold one! This is almost too bad; I would have liked to see how far this new attitude would take you. Ah, well, the time for things like that have passed, I suppose.” He sighed. “I’m afraid I can’t do it myself, dear Doctor. I’ve tried, oh believe me, I’ve tried.”

He turned and looked into the distance. “I’ve tried being good, and I’ve tried being bad. I’ve laughed, cried, _yelled_ , to try and get my da- _the king_ to give up those souls. I’ve given him tea, advice, his family back. I’ve dragged every monster in the underground, from Whimsun to Undyne, to his door, beaten and bloodied, and he still refused to even show them to me.” Flowey didn’t look even a little fazed by the horror story he was telling Alphys, in fact, he looked almost reminiscent. As if he was telling her about a trip to the beach and not slowly changing everything she knew about the world.

Alphys’ courage evaporated. “Is that what you’re going to do to me?” She feared she already knew the answer, but she had to be sure.

“No, he won’t trade them for your life, trust me, I tried.” His face split again into the crooked, pointy smile. “But don’t feel too down about it. Like I said, he wouldn't do it for any other monster either.” 

Alphys gulped. So, she was right. He had done this kind of thing before. Many, many times.

“But you’re smart, Alphys, perhaps you can see a way through this problem?” he asked eagerly. 

She lied and shook her head. She _could_ see a solution, but she didn’t want to do it. She didn’t want Flowey to get his greasy vines on the souls.

Flowey pouted. “That’s too bad, doctor. I had such high hopes!” He sounded insincere. His face lit up again, and he gasped so dramatically he could have given Mettaton a run for his money. “I know, why don’t I let you go back to your lab for a little! Maybe you can work something out there?”

Alphys nodded enthusiastically at the chance for an escape.

“Perfect!” Flowey clapped his vines. He grinned broadly. “You have 24 hours.”

Alphys tensed up. “What?” She asked once again.

“24 hours!” he repeated jubilantly. “Or else, well…”

Alphys let out a full scream as Flowey pulled back into the ground, unwrapping from her completely. She flailed her arms, legs, and tail as the white water rushed up to meet her. Her eyes snapped shut as she prepared for impact.

She landed on a large vine instead. She rolled off it like a raindrop onto the riverbank. She sat for a few moments, waiting for her heart rate to go down. A few tears had formed in her eyes, and she tried to wipe them off, only succeeding in getting her cheeks covered in the sap like liquid that covered her hands from her ‘attacks’ on Flowey. It coated her fingers and smelled wretched. She timidly approached the river to wash it off.

“24 hours!” Flowey literally _popped_ out from the ground beside her. She cried out once again, falling forwards towards the water. A vine wrapped around her waist and flung her back. She recovered quickly and struck the ground where Flowey had been, her reflexes heightened from Undyne’s training. Her claws struck nothing but a pile of dirt. She could hear Flowey cackling in the distance.

She approached the river again. Dirt now caked her hands, sticking to the vile sap. She didn’t want to touch the water, in fear that Flowey might actually decide to dunk her in this time. She reached her hands in, the current enveloping them and pulling off the dirt and sap with ease. She kept herself tense, waiting to strike if the flower tried to surprise her again, but it seemed like this time he was gone. Finally, she relaxed with a nervous, shuttering sigh. She splashed some of the cold water on her face to clean off the sap. It felt less jarring and more refreshing now that she was doing it herself, and her thoughts cleared just a little bit.

Her phone beeped. She was late for dinner.

She hugged her shoulders and began searching for the way home.


	18. Chapter 18

Alphys stared into the pot with disappointment. She continued to futilely whisk away at the lumpy, greasy mixture, but it was no use. The hollandaise was broken. She glanced over her recipe again, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. The answer was one of a hundred possibilities. The eggs might have been the wrong size, or she had misjudged the temperature of her portable burner, or perhaps it was that she was distracted by the feeling of someone watching her, dangling a threat over her head with gnarled vines.

Her book’s helpful list of tips and tricks to fix a broken sauce had proved fruitless as well. It didn’t help that she was too distracted to read it properly anyhow. Every time she tried to focus, she could swear she heard the rustle of leaves, or saw yellow petals darting by in the corners of her vision, causing her hands to once again slip and muck up any hope of fixing the complicated sauce.

She placed the goop filled pot next to a glass bowl full of wasted chocolate from an earlier attempt at baking a cake. The chocolate had formed into grainy waves. A wooden spoon sat, stuck firm in the middle of the bowl, sticking straight up like a wooden beacon. It would be a job and a half to chisel it out later, but Alphys simply did not have the stomach to deal with the unpalatable substance she had created. She felt awful for ruining something so precious. Once again, her beloved cookbook had proven to be of no help with her distracted mind.

Her stomach rumbled softly beneath her apron. Disappointing or not, she had to find something to eat for dinner, even if it wasn’t eggs benedict. She supposed it had been foolish to try to step up her cooking game while she was so distracted, but she had wanted, well, a distraction from the distraction. She continued to stare forlornly at her failures, wishing she had just made waffles again. Her stomach prompted her to action with another quiet rumble. She walked to the fridge and grabbed a package of ramen. The smooth, slippery package felt both familiar and foreign in her hands. It had been so long since she had eaten her once go to staple. When she opened the package over boiling water, she nearly dropped it. She didn’t know it was possible to become out of practice for making ramen, of all things. She chalked it up to her frayed nerves.

Even so, the first bite did not prove to be as nice as she had hoped. The noodles had turned out slightly undercooked, her internal ramen clock out of practice. She stared into space, chewing the gummy noodles and feeling like trash. 

“You, uh, you got anymore of that?” 

The deep voice startled her out of her stupor, causing her to jump. She inhaled a half-chewed noodle and began hacking from the intrusion in her throat, tears forming in her eyes.

“Ah, jeez!” Sans darted forward and started patting her back, not nearly hard enough to be of any help. 

Alphys lifted a hand for him to stop and roughly swallowed the food in her mouth, clearing the noodle from its precarious spot.

She pointed to a bowl off to the side on her desk and hoarsely croaked. “Over there.” 

“Thanks.” Sans joined her at the desk after retrieving it, his chair once again mysteriously under him despite the fact he had left it at the monitor. Alphys didn't have the energy to question it. She rested her head on her arms, elbowing her bowl away to the side. Tears were still flowing from her eyes. She didn’t want to cry. She blamed it on her coughing fit.

“So, uh, nice weather we're having?” Sans offered up the conversation starter warily.

Alphys snorted despite herself. 

Sans continued. “That snowstorm hit Snowdin right when it was predicted to, it was _white_ on time. Of course, I was watching Waterfall, when all that fog picked up. The echo flowers looked amazing reflecting off it, I can’t believe you _mist_ it. By the way, I’m thinking of starting a debate group about how the cavern seems to be getting warmer, I hear it’s quite a _heated_ topic, what do you think?”

Alphys sat, giggling slightly. The way he had said it was nearly funnier than the jokes themselves. He had said the whole spiel impossibly fast, almost too fast to process. Any monster who needed to breathe would have run out of air by the third sentence. She clutched her hands over her mouth to keep from laughing too loud. 

The soft shuffle of a letter sliding under her door broke through her momentary glee. 

She stood up, her chair squeaking from the sudden motion. She quickly nodded at Sans in thanks for trying to cheer her up, and went to get the letter, hoping that her speed walking wouldn’t tip him off to the nervous sparks in her stomach. He watched her get the letter, his expression as close to a concerned frown as it could possibly get, but he finally just shrugged and turned back to his ramen.

Alphys let out a quiet sigh of mixed relief and disappointment. She wanted to tell Sans about Flowey. Heck, she wanted to tell _anybody_ about Flowey, just so she wouldn’t have to face the crazed flower alone. But Flowey… he had to be really strong. He was filled with determination after all. And Sans… well, from what she understood from her impromptu medical exam a few days ago, he really wasn’t strong at all. One solid slap from Flowey’s vines could…

She didn’t want to think about it.

Sans was staring again. Alphys realized she hadn't moved for at least a few minutes, that had to look suspicious. She quickly smiled and waved, walking to her desk to fumble around for a letter opener. Her insides fluttered when she saw the prophecy symbol stamped in wax on the envelope. It was a letter from the king.

_Dear Doctor Alphys_

_Howdy! Sorry for taking so long to get back to you about your letter. I’ve thought over your proposition about the funeral, and I think it is a splendid idea! If you would not mind, I would like you to come over for tea and we can discuss things further. If my estimation is correct, I should be free during the afternoon the day after this letter arrives. Hope to see you then!_

_With Hope, Asgore_

“What's it say?” Alphys jumped slightly. Sans had snuck up on her again. 

“ _He must be suspicious._ ” She thought. “ _My hands are shaking, could I be more obvious?_ ”

“It’s from the king.” She said carefully, trying to keep worry out of her voice. “We… We’re going to have a funeral.”

Sans, who had seemed to slowly be leaning in, suddenly stopped. His eyes went dark. Alphys noticed his hand go into his pocket.

“A funeral.” He echoed. “A funeral... huh.” He looked up at her, his eyes relighting. “Sure, sounds… good.”

He turned around, going back to his chair. He stared for a moment into his empty bowl. Alphys went back to her chair too, poking her still mostly full bowl with her fork. She wasn't hungry anymore. A sudden whine by her side shook her from her funk. It was Toby, he was hungry.

Goodness, she _had_ been distracted.

Endogeny also started working up a ruckus, all the dogs within them whining in an unearthly, hungry unison. They used their head to push Alphys up from her chair.

“Okay, okay!” She giggled. She looked around for a moment, her eyes falling on the dog food still sitting by her fridge. She put her bowl of ramen on the floor as well. Toby sniffed it, but turned his nose up at the (now cold) undercooked noodles. Endogeny, on the other hand (or paw), had no reservations. They smacked their face over the ramen, eating it bowl and all.

That was what it took to shake Sans from his funk as well. “Hey!” He shouted at the dog(s). “Spit that out!”

Endogeny chewed faster.

Sans lunged across the table, sticking his hand into the dogs’ face. “Hey! Drop it! Drop it! Bad dogs!”

Endogeny whined, their ears flopping back. The bowl came out of their face and into Sans’ hands, covered in apology froth. The ramen was gone.

Sans sighed, putting the bowl on the counter and wiping his hands on his shorts. Endogeny whined again, their tail and head low. Sans scratched them between the ears. “Sorry guys, you’re good dogs. Just, don’t do that again please.”

Alphys laughed at the scene as she poured two bowls of dog food, one larger than the other. It felt good to laugh.

She put the bowls on the ground and whistled quietly. The dogs bounded over. Toby let out a yap when Endogeny, who often had trouble seeing the smaller dog below their line of sight, tripped over him. They stumbled forward right into Alphys’ face, whining an apology to both her and the other dog. Alphys giggled and pet them, and in return they gave her an affectionate, slobbery lick.

“Hey! Down! Not on the face!” she laughed.

Endogeny backed up to enjoy their food, which was in a bowl big enough to feed five or six dogs, perfect for them. Yet, despite its size, Alphys watched in surprise as Toby wrapped his paw around the rim and pulled it away while Endogeny was distractedly chewing. By the time the dog(s) went in for another bite, they found nothing. They whined, looking from Alphys to Sans in total confusion.

Alphys laughed and pat them on the head, pointing towards the small dog who looked all too pleased as he began scarfing down Endogeny’s food. Alphys moved in to take the bowl back, but Toby managed to latch his teeth around the rim and tried to growl as threateningly as a dog his size possibly could, a high-pitched motor noise that was more funny than it was intimidating.

Sans grabbed the bowl as well and suddenly Toby’s jaws closed on empty air. He turned back to his own food begrudgingly. Alphys didn’t think she had ever seen so much self pity on a dog’s face, and it was truly hilarious: so she laughed.

And for that moment, for that time, she forgot all about the threats that Flowey was hanging over her.

It felt good to laugh.

\---

Alphys was in her pajamas, but she certainly wasn’t in bed yet. She sat, staring at the tiny clock in the corner of her computer screen. A paused anime was open in the middle of the screen, but she couldn't bring herself to continue watching. She had already missed a significant portion of the plot due to how distracted she was. She would have to rewatch it tomorrow to catch back up. That was, of course, if she was still alive by then. The clock switched to 1:34. She had about 13 hours left.

“Cann yeepe?” Sans asked through Alphys’ headphones. She pulled them off.

“What?” 

“Can’t sleep?” he repeated.

“...nah.” she replied. She could just barely see him on the spare mattress in the dark, her computer screen glaring bright colors off his skull and the backs of his eye sockets. “Sorry, this light is probably keeping you awake too.” She turned the monitor off, reducing the room to near darkness save for the orangey glow coming through the edges of the skylight covers.

She started making her way to the escalator, before she paused. She turned back around and walked to the side of Sans bed. Screwing up what was left of her courage, she asked: “Sans, what do you know about timelines?”

His body, which had been quite relaxed, suddenly tensed. He had closed his eyes, and they remained closed, but he seemed to be gritting his teeth. “Not much, really. I know about theories and all that, but I’ve never done any research on them.” 

He figured he technically wasn't lying. He felt like he had done research, many, many times, enough times that it should have been burned into memory. This time around, though, he hadn’t done any. He cracked an eye open.

Alphys looked disappointed.

“Why, what’s eating ya?” he asked, already regretting it.

“What do you think would happen if someone could stop and restart time? Do you think some things would get erased? Would anyone remember?”

Sans could feel sweat on his forehead. He closed his eye and shrugged. “Who knows really?”

He could feel the mattress shift as she sat on the edge, her mouth beginning to run faster than her head. “And what if the person who had control over time was really irresponsible or cruel? Or what if the person got bored and decided to mess with time for fun? Or-”

Sans was really sweating now, and he was way too tired for this. “I don’t know Alphys, and this really isn’t the _space_ or _time_ for talking about this.” He chuckled drowsily. “Heh, spacetime.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry.” She made a motion to stand up when Endogeny emerged from the darkness. They tilted their head and whined, clearly able to tell that Alphys was upset.

Alphys gently pushed their head away. “It’s okay.” she said. “Go back to sleep.”

Endogeny whined again and proceeded to follow Alphys up the escalator, despite her insistence that she was fine and that they should go back to sleep. At the top they raced past Alphys, jumping onto her mattress and turning around until they got comfortable. They wagged their tail slightly and tilted their head. Alphys stared at their behavior quizzically, but decided that she was too tired to ask questions and crawled in beside them. Endogeny snuggled their head up to her, before seeming to nod off almost instantly, their whole body quivering with the calm breathing of several dogs.

“ _What incredibly good act did this world ever do to deserve dogs?_ ” Alphys thought.


	19. Chapter 19

Unfortunately, Alphys had to wake up. Endogeny’s many legs flailed in time to her alarm as it beeped obnoxiously, startling them both awake. Alphys hit snooze, but didn’t fall back asleep, instead staring up at the gentle orange light coming through a nearby skylight. Her mind swirled with groggy morning thoughts. Breakfast plans mixed with her plans to meet with Asgore later that day. “ _I’ll tell him the blueberry muffins,_ ” she thought groggily as her eyes began to drift closed. “ _Er, no, waffles the souls._ ”

Her alarm shocked her awake again as her five minutes of snooze ran out. Endogeny jumped up to their feet, growling and bristling at the offending sound. Alphys was knocked out from under her blankets, the cold floor hitting her back and knocking the wind out of her. “Blackberry pancakes!” She wheezed.

Before long Sans woke up as well, mostly because of the smell of pancakes fresh from the pan. Alphys was still in her sleeping clothes, which consisted of pink pajama bottoms covered in anime style kittens (one of her favorite human garbage treasures, she had cut a hole for her tail.), and a shirt that said worlds best ~~grandma~~ royal scientist, a gift from Asgore that she had received early in her career. She waved at him wearily. “Pancakes?” she asked.

“Absolutely.” he replied.

Alphys did her best to lose herself in the tasty breakfast and casual conversation, but time pressed onward as always. All too soon she was dressed, had washed a few dishes (but not all of them, just enough to waste some time. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to clean them all.), and had rehearsed what she was going to say to Asgore nearly a hundred times. She waved goodbye to Sans, instructing him he would have to make his own lunch and reminding him to feed the dogs. He waved back and the dogs barked their goodbyes.

It was a long and uneventful walk to Asgore’s castle, save for when she waited for the elevator in MTT resort. She yelled to Mettaton quickly when she saw him, telling him that they needed to plan soon. He shot her a thumbs up just as she entered the elevator.

Her walk through New Home brought back memories. She had grown up here, on these drab, cramped streets. Monsterkind had almost gone extinct during the war with the humans, and early life in the underground had been rough to adjust to at first. But increasing comfort and survivability had in turn lead to an increase in the monster population. There was a lot of concern for the diminishing space in the caverns. New Home was the safest place to inhabit, but also the most densely populated. Some monsters who could adapt to harsher climates lived in other areas. Fluffy, hot, or ice monsters in Snowdin, aquatic monsters in waterfall, fiery or cold-blooded monsters like herself in Hotland, etc. It was never enough to make New Home feel any less jammed in, though. It was possible that monsters who could survive in other areas would eventually be _forced_ to move.

A few monsters in striped shirts ran by, chasing a ball. Children. They narrowly avoided getting hit by a bus, and the driver yelled some obscenities in an old monster dialect that sounded a lot like grunts. The kids apologised, but were called away by their parents anyway, forced to abandon the ball. Alphys left it on a doorstep in the hopes that it wouldn’t get stolen and they would get it back. It was a familiar feeling for Alphys, wanting to play but never having the space. All the recreation areas and buildings had been plowed over or gutted to be filled with new houses long before she had hatched. There just wasn’t enough room for everyone to be happy. That’s why MTT resort was so inviting to vacation in, because there was space and fun things to do, and monsters of all kinds could survive there so long as they didn’t go into Hotland itself. Mettaton’s open air concert hall was also the only surviving entertainment facility in New Home, as he had bought it before it was demolished, paying more than the owner could sell it for development.

These streets only looked greyer now that she was grown up. When she was little, she had imagined them being made of silver, but the sparkle she had seen in her childhood had long since vanished.

The castle was no less drab, a fortress that she heard had once housed a family. Now it mostly took up too much space. Most monsters didn’t know they were free to visit if they pleased. Alphys thought she should have told those kids. There was lots of room to play, and Asgore loved kids.

Even those he had to…

Alphys cut off that thought. She was at the castle now, anyway.

Two royal guards stood sturdy at the door. They waved in polite welcome before opening the door to let her in. Asgore was there to greet her, smiling wide. He was dressed in a simple royal robe, and Alphys was glad that her own jeans and t-shirt weren't too informal in comparison.

Asgore escorted her to the garden without saying anything. Once she was seated amongst the flowers he started fiddling around with a teapot.

“What kind?” he asked. Alphys shrugged, and Asgore chose his favorite tea for the both of them.

Alphys had some time to think while Asgore was busy preparing the tea. She shifted around in the flowers. The old king was not one to drink tea at a table if he had the opportunity to sit in the grass, but today Alphys wished he was. The golden flower bed, despite it’s almost unnatural softness, was making her uncomfortable, especially the notable empty patch. She tried instead to focus on the natural sunlight that filtered through the barrier into the castle. A rare commodity, the light had been discovered at the end of the caverns by the weary monsters who had set out to discover the entirety of the caves. The monsters had decided to give the light to the ones who brought them hope. The only other places in the underground with sunlight were the waterfalls and, supposedly though no one knew for sure anymore, the ruins.

Asgore gave Alphys a steaming teacup and, with surprising grace, sat his bulky form gently on the ground beside her without spilling a drop of his own tea.

“So,” he began. “What did you have in mind?”

Alphys quickly explained her reasoning for wanting a funeral. Asgore nodded solemnly, already understanding her feelings from watching his own subjects. Then she got into the details.

“Mettaton said we can use his concert hall.” She held up her fingers like she was counting them. “And, well, I don’t know anything about decorating a funeral, but I don’t doubt he knows something, or knows someone who knows.” She rambled on, Asgore still nodding. “Also, not everyone can make it to the hall, so we should have a procession afterword. I was thinking that we could see if we could take it all the way to Snowdin. I know not all monsters can go that far, but most should be able to. And then, well.” She lowered her fingers. “The dust was… lost. So, I thought, well… I saw this thing on a show once where humans honor their dead by sending their possessions on a burning boat. I thought that, maybe, if monsters want to, they can bring a possession of their loved one to... you know. Since they can't spread the dust on them.” 

Asgore looked solemn for just a little longer, before smiling in a bright, sad eyed way. “That sounds like a great idea, Alphys. You are very clever to come up with it. Just the observation and planning I would expect from my royal scientist.”

Alphys smiled and sipped her tea, bashfully enjoying the praise and sunshine before the tiniest current of air caused a flower petal to brush her hand, sparking her memory. She only had a few hours left. The room around her seemed to become darker just from the thought of it, but she swallowed her tea and proceeded to ask her next question.

“A-a-asgore,” she was stuttering again. “Asgore, I was thinking, um, well,” she hated being so hesitant. Lives where at stake here. “I kind of want to restart some of my experiments, to… to help us break the barrier. I want to take the souls and... try again?” The upward pitch in her voice made it sound like a question.

Asgore wasn’t smiling anymore. He looked deep in thought.

“ _He’s on to me!_ ” Alphys thought. She was about ready to get up and bolt before he rained down some unholy terror in retribution for her lies.

Asgore smiled wide. “I’m so glad!” he said, his eyes literally sparkling from a magical manifestation of joy. “I was afraid that you had given up! Oh, but if you wanted to do something else with your time that would have been fine too, I was just afraid that you might stay locked in that lab forever and, uh,” Asgore backpedaled. “What I’m trying to say is that I’m glad you’ve gotten your spark back. You said you needed the souls? I can get them to you by-”

“Today?” Alphys interrupted. Asgore looked surprised. “What I mean is, I’ve been, er, working hard on something and all I need is the souls to test it and I kinda want to do it soon, please?” Alphys continued.

“Yes, yes! Of course! I can have the souls to you in about three hours. Does that work?”

“ _Cutting it close._ ” Alphys thought.

“Yes.” she said.


	20. Chapter 20

Alphys sat beside the sealed cart of souls. She had arrived with about a half hour to spare. She was dressed in a long, fluffy white coat, and she sat in such a way that the coat billowed around her like a tent. She would have been happy and cozy like this, if she didn't know what was coming.

She remembered Sans’ face when he had watched her leave. She wondered how desperate she must have seemed, how guilty. How bad had she looked to earn such a grim expression from him?

The snow began to lift as dirt pushed through, then a folded stem, then a yellow flower.

“Wow, I must say I _am_ impressed!” Flowey’s hollow praise flooded Alphys’ ear holes. “ _Very_ impressed! I never thought _you_ , out of all of them, would have had the guts-!” He cut himself off with a burst of his own laughter.

“Do you know, _how_ many… I mean how _many_ -!” he simply could not get the words out through his cackling. “Oh, _if_ I had _known_!”

“Just take them and leave!” Alphys grumbled. Flowey lightly smacked her upside the head.

“Watch that attitude, Doctor!” he sneered. “You’re getting too bold for your britches! At least the other times you had _some_ sort of survival instinct! You were always the only one smart enough to run away!”

Alphys’ stomach churned. Running away. The very idea seemed so familiar, far more than she thought it should be. Of course, that had been her plan if Undyne had… had…

“Alphys has already evacuated everyone...” Alphys’ head snapped towards Flowey as he did a near perfect impression of Undyne’s voice, his face shifting to look like hers. “You’re too late ya weed, fuhuhu!” Flowey’s Undyne Face began melting. “And then death!” he finished in his own voice with a dramatic flair, as if he was quoting a play.

Alphys was certain she had never heard Undyne say that, and yet, it was so familiar.

“Oh, don’t tell me you haven't connected the dots yet Doctor!” Flowey chided. “I haven’t exactly been subtle!”

Alphys didn’t say anything. Of course she had connected the dots. 

And she didn’t like the results.

“But, reminiscing time is over,” Flowey sighed wistfully. “Open the box Doctor.”

Alphys did _not_ want to open the box. Her gut, her _magic_ , simmered angrily. But she couldn’t quite summon it. She felt like a shaken soda can, a lit fuse.

Flowey yawned. “We don’t have all the time in the world, Alphys. Not anymore, anyway. Get on with it!”

Alphys muttered some profanities as she fiddled with a key on the metal cart. She turned it with a soft click, and the sides of the cart flopped open, landing in the snow with two _pompft_ sounds.

“You happy?” she spat.

“Very.” he replied, his face split wide open in a sinister grin.

He inspected the jars, one by one, one color at a time, tapping the lids and continuing to smile. With these souls he would become godlike.

Alphys was suddenly overwhelmed by a need to act. A need to stop him.

_Flowey_  
_· Atack ???_  
_· Def. ???_  
_A danger to all._

Alphys hadn’t intended to check his stats, but now she found herself running through Undyne’s battle preparation list.

“ _‘What does this fight mean to you?’ It means everything, for everyone!_ ” she thought. “ _It means everyone gets to live to see another day, It means the safety for humans and monsters, it means a_ lot _!_ ”

She worked at pulling the magic from her feelings. Her guilt, her anger, her love.

Her vengeance, not just for her friends, but for herself, for the versions of herself who never had the chance to be her, the versions who fled, who hid, who died.

She raised her hands and squeezed her eyes shut, the flood of emotions ringing in her ears and drowning out everything else. She had one shot.

She opened her eyes when she smelled smoke.

Flowey stared at her, his mouth open wide with surprise, and with what almost looked like fear. A large, smoking hole was blasted straight through most of his stem, and he had to shift his weight to keep from falling.

Slowly, his shock faded. “Well.” He smiled. “I’ll be damned. You know, you really are my favorite version. I never would have thought you had it in you!”

He patted her on the head in congratulations. Then he slammed her into a tree.

“But you’re too little, too late!”

He raised his vines and smashed all six containers, grabbing at the souls inside. Alphys was forced to close her eyes as the clearing lit up with bright white light, when she finally managed to open them again, she was stricken with terror.

In Flowey’s place there now stood a gigantic beast. It was a nonsensical muddle of vines and eyes and metal wires. All of its eyes turned toward her, and she could feel the vine holding her against the tree begin to grow thorns. The monster… the monster that was indeed still Flowey raised his arm in preparation to crush her.

That's when a white beam of magic chopped it clean off.

\---

Alphys had been acting odd, and nothing about it was familiar. Sans didn’t like that.

She had left him alone again, but this time he didn’t know why. She hadn’t even said hello when she had returned, she had just yelled that she had one more errand to run and grabbed a coat.

And she had had something in a metal cart. 

There's only one thing in the underground that could require that much armor for transport, or rather, six things.

Where was she going with those?

He had followed her on the camera as far as he could, all the way to the woods, but he had lost sight of her when he found one of the cameras mysteriously offline.

And then there was the noise. Ringing right through the caverns and up to the core, the loud sound of thunder.

He didn’t know anyone with magic like that.

The dogs were on top of him in no time, panicking and whining due to the loud noise. He had patted them to calm them down.

“We need to find Alphys.” he told them. They barked in agreement.

\---

“How did you find us?” Flowey growled. Sans was standing across the clearing, raised high in the air on Endogeny’s back. 

“Aww, _lighten_ up!” Sans said, despite the serious look on his face. “You were positively _beaming_! Your face just _lit_ up the caverns!”

Flowey groaned. “Okay, I get it, the bright flash, right!” He straightened up; his red monitor eyes focused on the skeleton. His severed arm dripped a light green water that sizzled and melted the snow beneath it. “You and your jokes, you stupid comedian!”

“What?” Sans asked. “You got a _bone_ to pick with me?”

“I’ve had enough with that joke, thank you! It wasn’t funny the first 186 times and it still isn’t.”

Sans grinned slyly. “I had a feeling.”

Flowey raised the stump of his cactus hand, a small bud was growing in the middle of it. “You know what I do find funny though?” The small flower began blossoming, getting bigger and bigger, before the pale pink petals fell away, revealing a new, completely unscathed hand. Flowey was laughing. 

Sans booed. Flowey tried to smash him with his freshly regrown arm, but Endogeny was too fast.

“Woops!” Sans taunted. “Looks like I’m on an unhittable target, what are you going to do now?”

“You can’t dodge forever!” Flowey screamed. “You'll slip up! You'll get tired and fall off that dog! Then I’ll have you!”

He whacked at Sans with his vines and plucked bombs from thin air to drop on him. He was agitated. Not only was Sans often his biggest nuisance, but he still couldn’t reach his save files. Where was Chara? They must still have the file.

“Chara! Chara if you're out there answer me!”

His cries were met with a lightning strike to the head. He turned to see Alphys dash away into the forest just as the following thunder struck. He saw that the tree she had been held to was in flames, vines and all. He searched the trees for her, waiting to strike if she re-emerged. Too late, he heard a blaster charging, and he barely had enough time to shield his head before it launched, cutting off his arm once again. He couldn’t concentrate on both of them at the same time, even if he had eyes to spare. 

His draining health flashed before his eyes. 

**1**

He laughed. Of course! He hadn't killed anyone this time around!

“Chop off my limbs all you like, idiot!” He mocked, his arm already growing back. “You have _nothing_ on me!”

Sans was sweating. He knew it too.

Another lightning blast launched from the woods, hitting him in the face this time. The strike left a hole of dead pixels beneath his right eye.

“Dammit!” he screamed as the thunder roared. Dissipating electricity ran up and down his monitor face as the hole beneath his eye closed up. Another number flashed before his eyes:

**276**

Now that was worrisome. Her new magic was unfocused but rawly powerful. She also didn’t have the best aim, but he was a big target.

He needed to limit the playing field. A stray bolt had bounced off the edge of his monitor and had set another tree on fire. Flowey noticed that, despite the snow, the fire from the other tree was spreading as well.

Perfect.

He sacrificed a few vines to the flames as he raked the spreading fire towards himself. Alphys was forced to run as the flaming vine chased her, landing her trapped with Sans in the middle of an ever-growing crescent of fire. The heat began to grow so intense that the snow melted away beneath their feet. Behind them and to their sides there was nothing but flames, and in front of them was Flowey. There was no escape.

Alphys tried to launch another lightning attack, but was forced to use it to counter when more of Flowey’s spiked vines flew toward her. Sans, meanwhile, couldn’t get an attack in edgewise as he was forced to cling to Endogeny to keep from falling off. Alphys launched another counter against an attack from Flowey. She knew if she slipped up  
she would be done for, chipped down by Flowey until she was dust. And if Sans slipped up, it would definitely be the end for him.

They couldn’t keep this up forever.

But suddenly, the barrage of attacks stopped. Alphys looked up at the monstrous form of Flowey, hoping that Sans had taken him out, or that he was willing to bargain.

Instead, she saw two venus flytraps blooming on his hands.

The air filled with a chilling buzz. Alphys nearly lost her footing as the ground began to shake. Hundreds of flaming flies burst from the fire behind them.

Alphys was swarmed with flies, each of them chipping off a bit of health as well as dragging her towards the giant flytraps. She screamed as they lifted her off the ground. She landed on the sticky inside of the flytrap, its teeth closing in front of her. A bone flew through the air and propped the trap open just in time. Sans reached his hand in and grabbed hers, dragging her onto Endogeny’s back.

“Try attacking from here!” he yelled back at her.

Endogeny’s immunity from getting hit did indeed help with launching attacks, but it made it harder to hit Flowey. The wild firing was dangerous too, as it made the fire worse.

“We can’t keep this up!” cried Alphys. “We can’t do this alone, we need more firepower!”

“The flames are blocking everything!” Sans hollered back over the ruckus of Flowey’s attacks. 

A tiny yap caught their attention. Toby was running alongside them. He nodded at them in a determined way. Endogeny whined, but Toby barked back instantly before veering off towards the flaming trees.

Flowey’s attention turned toward him.

“Stupid dog!” Several vines with weird, fleshy finger guns began to come out of him. Alphys screamed as dozens of finger bullets began launching towards the dog.

Toby let out a howl. Suddenly his stomach began to glow red, the same red that a certain legendary artifact was rumored to be. Before Alphys could blink, his whole body was encased in red light, forming around him like an arrow. His speed doubled, then tripled, then quadrupled as he sped into the flames, pushing them aside and leaving a temporary tunnel in his wake before the fire closed in again.

“Blasted little annoying thing!” Flowey roared. He turned back to Alphys and Sans. “Well this has been fun, but I need to stop him before he alerts the whole Underground. No hard feelings!” He mocked.

The cheeks on his longer mouth began to bulge, and the mouth quivered as it held itself shut, as if the power within was almost too much to contain. Sans also summoned a blaster in preparation.

The two of them let matching blasts fly, Sans’ white beam and Flowey’s blue beam colliding in the center, sending a wave across the small battlefield that pushed back the fire for a moment. Flowey pushed harder, beginning to knock Sans off balance. Alphys didn’t know what to do. She thought about trying to add her magic to the blast but if she messed up the risk was too high.

So she did the next thing she could think of. She stood up and wrapped her arms around Sans’ chest from behind to stabilize him.

The two of them sank slightly into Endogeny, their combined weight pushing them into his goopy fur. With the new stability, Sans was able to overpower Flowey’s attack, launching it back into his mouth.

Flowey gasped as the attack hit him in such a sensitive spot. While the attack was still dealing only 1 damage, he had no moments of invincibility to avoid it, the 1s stacking up quickly. By the time the attack ran out, he had taken quite a bit of damage.

Flowey’s second mouth hung open, its tongue lolling out, the two eyes closest to it were now filled with cartoonish Xs. There was no way he’d be able to fire that laser again anytime soon.

Sans collapsed in Alphys’ arms. She lowered him to Endogeny’s back but had to hold him to keep him from falling. This was not good. Neither of them could attack like this.

Flowey had turned away for a few minutes to nurse his wound, but he was starting to look back at them, his eyes filling with fire. 

Or rather, Alphys realised, reflecting the ever-approaching flames.

In a blind rage he flailed his vines toward them. Endogeny decided it was their turn to attack.

They reared back, forcing Alphys to cling to their back with one hand for dear life, the other holding Sans. The shadow dogs on Endogeny’s stomach were working into a frenzy. They swarmed and barked and howled, trying to assemble a reasonable and cohesive attack. From within the inky blackness a faceless dog appeared. It was nearly the same as Toby.

It looked up at Flowey. Kicking its legs in the snow, it launched into the air, rocketing with a flame from its rear. Its face opened into a ghastly hole, and hundreds of backwards arrows began pouring down on the plant monster.

Flowey raised his arms in defence, but the damage began to stack up regardless. The rain of arrows was merciless, and for a moment it looked like Flowey was in danger.

That’s when he discovered he had flamethrowers.

His screams turned to maniacal laughter as he flailed the flames around, burning up the arrows before they had a chance to hit him. The little faceless dog fell to the ground and melted into a sparkling white dust, similar to most spent magic attacks.

Flowey turned his flamethrowers to feed the flames of the forest. A flame licked toward them and Endogeny dodged it, but it left Alphys’ coat singed like a roasted marshmallow. She carefully pulled it off and tossed it aside. 

Thanks to Flowey’s aid the flames were nearly upon Endogeny and their riders, and now he was approaching them with his own flames. Alphys sealed her eyes shut and prepared to be turned to ash.

Flowey let out a squawk as a flame launched out at him through the massive fire. He cried out in shock as it blasted one of his flamethrowers off.

Alphys opened her eyes to squint through the smoke. Someone was emerging from the fire. It was…

“Grillby?!” Alphys was astounded.

Grillby waved in her direction before disappearing back into the fire. A few more fireballs hit Flowey from the forest. Grillby was using the same tactic of hiding in the trees that Alphys had been using, only he had the advantage of being able to hide in the fire. 

Grillby was able to keep Flowey distracted as Endogeny worked on finding a way to distance themselves from the flames. There wasn’t much that could be done, though. The fire was out of control and their battlefield was shrinking every second.

A tunnel of flames burst open as a spiraled blue spear found a target in one of Flowey’s good eyes. He howled in anger as a blue, melted figure made her way through the fire, the flames dutifully missing her as she slid along.

“Undyne! Oh, thank heavens!” Alphys cried, but her jubilance was soon drowned out by Flowey’s roars.

“How does this keep happening?” he whined. “I’m basically a god! I shouldn’t be losing to a bunch of idiots like you!”

He stowed away his remaining flamethrower, whipping out his finger guns instead. Undyne used a spear to shield herself and Alphys’ group from the finger bullets. Grillby picked the guns off one by one from his safe place in the fire.

A much larger flame came from the forest and hit Flowey in the tangle of chords that made up his back. After Flowey’s screaming had stopped, Alphys realized it was actually a monster. A Pyrope.

“The townsfolk are trying to put out the fire!” Undyne yelled to Alphys. “And any monster capable of withstanding the flames are being sent in to back us up! How is he?” She was pointing at Sans, who was still unconscious... and snoring.

“I think he’s asleep!” Alphys replied. Undyne gave her an odd look. “He used a lot of energy, maybe he’s recharging?” Alphys guessed.

“Can I help you?” A Vulkin had sauntered out from the woods behind them.

“You can help me!” called Pyrope. Vulkin grinned and skipped toward it, drenching it in lava.

“Ahhh!” sighed Pyrope. “Nice and hot!”

Pyrope coiled itself up and sprang at Flowey like a spring. Vulkin patted its feet happily. “I’m good at helping!”

Flowey was almost on the ground now, his metal and plant body nearly burnt through. Alphys was relieved. They could win this fight! They were winning it right now!

Flowey began to push himself back upward, his arms nearly his only remaining support. His second mouth was beginning to groan and shake. The Xs faded from its eyes. Flowey laughed weakly.

“Game over, everyone.” He whispered. A blue laser fired from the mouth.

At first it looked like it would hit the Vulkin head on, but Pyrope jumped in the way and took some of the damage, leaving both monsters critically injured, but alive. He turned the beam towards Undyne and her shielded companions. The attack continued to miss Undyne, but the beam seemed to draw in closer and closer...

Undyne’s arm flew off with a horrible sound. The sound did not come from Undyne’s mouth, nor did it sound like a breaking bone or tearing flesh, but an unrealistic screeching noise, as if her injury defied some law of reality regarding her existence.

Flowey was hit with more fire from the forest, but a quick scan of the trees with his laser and the crackling sound of Grillby crying out put an end to that. The blue laser returned and more of Undyne’s mass began to blow away. Each strike to her body created another, slightly quieter version of the reality defying screech.

Then Alphys heard it through the mayhem, a tiny bark.

Toby launched from the fire like a glowing red missile, slamming right into Flowey’s head. The laser stopped as glass shards from Flowey's monitor sprayed across what remained of the field.

Flowey staggered, barely able to support himself even with his huge cacti arms. He spat out glass as his face dripped through the cracks and holes in his monitor. The pipes around his head that looked kind of like petals were beginning to glow different colors. The same colors as the souls, Alphys noticed.

“Undyne, I think we can beat him now.” she gripped Undyne’s melting shoulders and pointed towards the lights. “I think those are his weak spots.”

Flowey started coughing up blue sparks from his second mouth. “We need to hurry.” Undyne said. “Do you think you can take this shot with me? I don’t know if I have the power to do it alone.”

Alphys hesitated. “I can’t aim! We have one shot at this as far as we know, what if I miss?” She glanced at Flowey warily. He was beginning to get back up.

“Your attacks are lightning, right?” Undyne asked thoughtfully. Alphys nodded. “Then you won't miss, trust me.”

“How do you know?”

“ _Trust_ me!” Undyne repeated.

“You know I do. What do you need me to do?” 

“Wait for my signal. Then throw as much of your power at him as possible.” She sank down into an alarmingly small puddle and slinked off towards Flowey.

“Okay.” Alphys slid off Endogeny, placing Sans in what was left of the snow. “Take him as far away as you can. Be careful.” She whispered to the dog(s). Endogeny barked gently. They used the shadow dogs to scoop him off the ground and envelop him, then ran for the fire. The flames missed them all the way through.

Alphys stood firm on the rapidly drying ground. The fire approached ever closer. Whatever happened next would be the difference between victory or being burned alive.

Undyne raised her hands in the air, bringing a rain of Z-shaped spears down on Flowey. He raised an arm with his remaining flamethrower and began torching them as they fell, but his arm was shaking.

“NOW!” Undyne yelled. Alphys didn’t understand, but she fired at Flowey anyway, throwing anything she had left inside at him. Now or never.

As it had turned out, Undyne’s attack had managed to plant a spear in all six of Flowey’s metal ‘petals’. The lightning was drawn towards them, beginning to zap between the spears as well as riding the Z-shape up and down. Flowey jolted and screamed, shaking his head to try and dislodge the spears. In one final attempt at victory, he fired a weakened blast from his second mouth, cutting the ground beside Alphys and causing her to tip towards the fire. Undyne ran from her spot and dove at her just as the electricity destroyed Flowey’s petals. A forceful flash of light shook the area around them, and Alphys blacked out just as the flames began to scorch her back.

\---

Alphys came to when a batch of water was thrown on her. It stung her eyes and tasted terrible in her mouth, almost like… soap? She sputtered and tried to wipe it off her face.

“Wosh u face.” Woshua grumbled, moving on to pour soap on the chard bits of the forest in a vain attempt to clean it. “Wosh trees!”

Alphys shivered as rain fell onto her face. A ring of monsters were holding hands and chanting, creating clouds that drifted towards the top of the caverns. As they arrived, the clouds began to dissolve into water droplets, falling and combating what remained of the dying flames. Other monsters worked in a long line to pour buckets of water that were being passed all the way to and from the river.

Alphys finally realized that she was sitting on a gurney, lined up next to five others. The first two had Vulkin and Pyrope, who were sleeping peacefully and looked like they had already been healed. The third had grillby on it, who was currently being healed by the Snowdin shopkeeper. He waved at her when he saw she was looking, and she waved back guiltily. He didn’t look badly hurt, but Alphys noticed a large gash in his suit from his chest to stomach, nearly cutting it in half.

On the other side of her was Undyne. Or rather, a puddle with Undyne’s coloration. Alphys raised out her hand carefully, and a hand emerged from the puddle as well. They sat just like that for a while, holding hands.

Alphys continued to assess her surroundings. To her surprise, the six souls were back in their containers! She couldn’t believe it! There was no way they should have survived being attacked with Flowey and yet there they were, sealed back in the glass with webbing thanks to Muffet, who was keeping a watch over them and…

Flowey.

He seemed unconscious, hunched over in the middle of the charred field in the only remaining patch of live grass. Alphys couldn’t believe that he was still around after having the souls ripped from him like that. She felt like she was onto something, a scientific breakthrough.

Alphys squeaked as Flowey began to stir. He looked about, assessing his situation. He looked frightened, but covered it quickly with laughter. “Hehehe, you fools think you beat me? I’ll be back! I’ll be back you hear me!” 

Alphys looked around in a panic as he began to burrow. Why wasn't anyone doing anything? They had barely even reacted!

What she didn’t see was that Flowey only made it a few feet into his escape before running into a horrendous, pointed sneer. He turned away only to be faced by another, and then another. While he had been unconscious, the Vegetoid had been busy chewing through his complex, cavern spanning root system. They had him trapped.

One of the Vegetoid scooped him up in its mouth as they surfaced, and spat him into a pot in the hands of a waiting bunny, who in turn stuck him in a pet carrier.

Alphys laid back in peace, amazed at the monsters’ ingenuity. She grimaced as she landed on her burnt back. The shopkeeper noted her distress and came over, offering her a healing spell. She accepted, switching hands with Undyne as she flipped to her front. She relaxed as the cooling magic began to mend her skin. 

Two gurneys over from her, beside Undyne, Sans awoke, yawning and stretching. He blinked his eye sockets and surveyed the scene. 

“Did I miss anything?”


	21. Chapter 21

At last, after all the drama of the last few months, after all the heartache, fear, tears, and unexpected battles, the funeral was ready to begin. Alphys sat back on a folding chair, sipping a simple punch and taking a moment to breathe. She was wearing the same black, spotted dress she had worn to the concert; it was the darkest piece of clothing she owned. 

Mettaton had kept the decorations for the hall simple. Round tables draped in white cloth surrounded by folding chairs were spread across the floor, so monsters could sit together and talk. The hall seats were also open, and an entire section of the hall had been turned into a temporary aquarium for any strictly aquatic monsters. Alphys was certain that nearly every monster in the underground was there. Most everyone seemed to have a connection to the monsters who had been lost, whether it was a family bond or just a friendly one. Mettaton had set up a podium in the middle of the hall, so if anyone wanted to say a few words, they could. Already, Mr. Snowdrake had made a speech with his wife for support. Reaper bird had made a speech about a few Froggit and Whimsun all at once, and while nobody could really understand them, they were appreciative. Lemon bread had also made a speech about their sister, and the Arron part of them had stayed respectfully quiet.

Undyne was just returning from giving a speech about Papyrus. Alphys eyed Sans at the table next to hers. He seemed to have really appreciated what Undyne had to say, his head rested on his hands and his eyes were half closed and thoughtful. For once, he looked truly relaxed.

Undyne had lost a lot of mass during the fight. She wasn’t much taller than Alphys now. The two sat, holding hands, eventually leaning onto each other as they eavesdropped on the soft chatter that filled the hall. So many monsters, so many stories to share.

Hours dwindled on calmly as other monsters gave speeches. Eventually it was time for the procession. Monsters began to gather the things they had brought, putting them in packs to carry or giving them to other monsters if they were unable to travel to Snowdin themselves.

Sans had been cheering up a scarf wearing mouse monster by stacking empty punch cups on their head. Alphys beckoned him to come along to the front of the line, and he waved the little monster goodbye, leaving them in a slightly precarious position. Nacarat Jester ran to catch the cups as they fell.

And then they were walking. Asgore led the way, dressed in a dark robe and carrying a large purple flame in his hand. Undyne followed, leading the royal guard, who carried decorated bones for the fallen dogs from the forest. Endogeny and Toby followed close behind. Endogeny’s head hung low, but their tail swung slightly out of gratitude to the guard for remembering their fallen brethren. Alphys and Sans stood farther back, amongst the general crowd. Most of the monsters were silent, except for a few that still had stories to whisper to each other, or those who were crying. Alphys was glad that, for once, those who cried could simply _cry_ ; they were offered comfort, but no one was trying to force them to stop.

Some monsters stayed in Hotland, passing their things off to friends and family. Others were met in Hotland in order to give something to the procession.

Upon just entering Waterfall, the procession passed Elder Puzzler, who turned away with a huff. He seemed disinterested in the whole affair. Sans went over to talk to him regardless.

Alphys waited for him. She couldn’t hear whatever it was that they were discussing, but eventually Elder Puzzler’s face softened ever so slightly, and he gave Sans something. His expression hardened again when he saw Alphys watching, and he glared her down bitterly.

Sans came back to the procession just before it left.

“What did you talk about?” Alphys asked.

Sans shrugged. “Just Paps. He’s a huge fan of the guy, ya know?” Sans fiddled with the contraption that Elder Puzzler had given him. It was a handheld, hand carved, miniature block puzzle. “Never knew why he admired the grump so much, But I think I get it now.”

By the time they reached the river in Snowdin, Sans had solved the puzzle.

The river person provided the boat. It was non-sentient, of course, and looked hand carved. Alphys wondered for a moment if it had belonged to someone the River Person had known. Perhaps they had once taken an apprentice.

Tears and sighs were shared as Monsters began to place things in the boat. Some monsters put their items in bag and all. Others carefully removed their items from their carrying cases to take one last look. They hugged them, showed them to others, and held them in the firelight so they could shine. The monsters had only brought one or two of the many items their lost loved ones had owned, but in this moment of finality even the things that they could bear to part with seemed like a great loss.

The items began to pile up. The guards placed their decorated bones. Undyne added one of Papyrus’ wrapped bones. The Snowdrakes placed a small clip-on tie. Mettaton placed a large bouquet, which he had dedicated to _all_ his lost fans. 

Alphys added a container of half frozen spaghetti. She hadn't known what else to bring.

Sans was among the last to place his things. He looked at the puzzle box for a long time, finally deciding to mix it all up. “There you go, bro. Now you can solve it too.”

Alphys noticed him pull something else out of his pocket, a small sheet of paper. She was barely able to read the title before he began wrapping it. It looked like it was a recipe for snail pie.

She was startled when she realised he was wrapping it in Papyrus’ scarf. She had not expected him to give up something so valuable. He held the package to his forehead for a while, and he stood still, eyes closed, just breathing. Then the package was in the boat and he was back in the crowd. Alphys swore she never even saw him move.

The king put a golden flower in the boat, as well as a pair of green and yellow sweaters and a necklace. Some of the older monsters looked distressed by these items. Gerson almost said something, but snapped his mouth shut and lowered his hand.

The king spoke instead.

“My dear subjects, my friends, my people. We are here today, not only to mourn death, but to remember life. Within these items, each of you have locked memories. Today, we let those go. Today we promise our loved ones that we can, and will, move on. We promise that we will rise and continue to live like they would have wanted. We promise that we will continue marching towards a better future, to one day defeat humanity and take back what they stole from us.”

He fell silent.

A murmur rose in the crowd, approval mixed with uncertainty. They had seen the damage that only one human could do. They were not eager to witness a full war.

“And I would also like to thank Alphys for planning this day of love and remembrance.”

A much happier murmur filled the crowd now. Alphys’ head sunk down as she blushed, both out of gratitude for the approval, as well as slight nervousness from having so much attention placed on her. Undyne slid over and gave her an enthusiastic and encouraging pat on her back as the crowd's attention returned to the river. Undyne’s hand drifted down into Alphys’, and Alphys gave it a light squeeze in return.

The boat floated out into the water, weighed down a little by its new, precious cargo. Asgore's flame turned orange as it hit the boat. The River Person gently shoved it away with a wooden pole, and it drifted, illuminating the water, shimmering yellow and orange on the walls of the cave.

Then, slowly, gracefully, it sank beneath the surface.


	22. Chapter 22

“You’re sure about this?” 

Alphys watched as Sans packed his shirts and shorts into a plastic garbage bag. She had to admit, for how long he had stayed, and how much of a mess he had made, he really hadn’t brought much of his own.

“Yeah, I mean, I’ve been bumming off of ya for like, what, a month now?” Sans asked as he pulled a bottle of ketchup out of the fridge and shoved it in the bag too.

Alphys snorted. “Three.” 

Sans nodded, pulling a whoopee cushion out of one of her desk drawers. “Yeah, I should head home.”

It had been about a month since the funeral. Sans had slowly stopped watching Alphys’ recordings, but it had still come as a surprise to her when he had told her he was planning to go. 

“You’re sure you’ll be alright...?” she wanted to add ‘alone’ but she just couldn’t bring herself to.

“I’ll manage. I can’t just leave the place collecting dust, you know?” He pulled a trombone from under his bedsheets and stuffed it into the bag as well. “He wouldn’t want that.”

“Yeah,” Alphys hummed. “But if you need any help cleaning up just call, okay?”

“Sure,” He replied, slinging the bag over his shoulder. Endogeny and Toby jumped up, both whining. “Do you want to come with me?” Sans asked. They looked indecisively between Sans and Alphys. 

“It’s okay you two. Go ahead.” Alphys smiled, grateful that Sans would have some company. The dogs wagged their tails enthusiastically.

The four of them walk towards the door in silence. Alphys hadn’t felt this awkward since Sans had first moved in. Endogeny broke the tension for just a moment, giving Alphys one last lick on the forehead before they and Toby headed out.

Sans waved slightly and made a move toward the door, but Alphys grabbed his wrist just before he could leave. She stared him dead in the eyes, desperately needing to ask one last question. “How much time do we have left?”

He looked at her, then the ground, then back up at her. He shrugged. “Beats me. Maybe forever, maybe a few more minutes. It’s best not to worry about it.”

But Alphys _was_ worried. For all she knew, everything that had been accomplished, everything _she_ had accomplished, could all be erased at any second. She was starting to understand why Sans didn’t tell anyone about this.

“Look, don’t beat yourself up about it.” Sans could see the worry in her eyes. “I don’t let it get under my _skin_!”

Alphys chuckled. “Right. You’re right.” She let go of his wrist. “Call me if you’re feeling _bonely_ , alright?” she hoped the pun landed, she had looked it up last night.

Sans seemed to stiffen for a moment, but he quickly relaxed and laughed. “Good one.” He patted her gently on the back and walked out the door, his bag letting out a fart noise as the whoopee cushion got caught under the trombone. Alphys and Sans both doubled over from laughter. When she opened her eyes again, he and the dogs were gone.

\---

Undyne released Alphys from the kiss she had caught her in when she had come through the door. Alphys’ face was red. “Wow…” she exhaled.

“I was just following the instructions on the sign!” Undyne grinned.

“Sign?”

Undyne laughed and pulled a sticky note off of Alphys’ back. The note said ‘kiss me’.

“Wonder who put that there?” Undyne asked coyly.

Alphys’ face was in her hands. “Three guesses and the first two don’t count.”

Alphys sighed, and then she laughed.

A few minutes later the two of them were snuggled together under a blanket, watching anime. Alphys had been a bit antsy at first, slightly freaking out about the fact that time could start over at any moment. She should be working, down in the lab trying to find a way to stop whatever force was resetting time and ruining everything. She had such little time and so much science to do!

And she reveled in that thought. She wanted to do science again! She actually wanted to be back down in the lab, mixing and prodding and experimenting over and over. Being careful, making mistakes (just not on such a big scale this time), and finding new and exciting discoveries. She hadn’t realized how much she had missed that.

Undyne paused the DVD. “Alphys, are you all right? You’re shake-” She was cut off by the goofy grin she saw on Alphys’ face. It was positively the cutest thing. “Fuhuhu! You ready to get sciencing already? I just barely got here!”

Alphys’ excitement softened. Undyne was right. Alphys didn’t know how much time they had left, but they couldn’t spend it all at work. Right here, right now, they were together. It was what Alphys had always dreamed of. Science would hopefully get done later, but for now, for this moment, she would pretend she didn’t know about the potential end. She snuggled up to Undyne, who kissed her on the cheek. This moment was what mattered to her right now, so Alphys decided that, for now, they were beyond time. This moment would last for as long as they wanted, this moment was forever.

\---

It seems to you that the events of your vision are winding down. 

The cutscene is still splayed out in front of you. You can see them, Alphys and Undyne, little pixelated characters under a pixelated blanket giving each other pixelated smooches.

Perhaps you are impressed. Perhaps you never thought they would get together without your assistance.

Perhaps, for the first time in a long time, you remember that these are more than characters in a story that you play again and again. Perhaps, for the first time in a long time, you think of them as real people.

If you had hands, you would spread your fingers across the surface in front of you. Perhaps you are amazed at the bitter-sweetness of the ending that they have found for themselves, all on their own. You know that there is a happier possibility for them, of course. You’ve lived it, you’ve loved it.

It could be that way again. You could grant them that ending.

But you would need to take theirs away first.

The vision before you reflects the choices that you currently have turned your back on.

Continue or Reset?

“Get on with it!” says the Red Voice. The Red Voice is always so impatient.

You turn toward your options. You don’t have hands, but you lightly brush them anyway. You touch the Continue button, and the Red Voice gets happy. You touch the Reset button, and the Red Voice gets angry.

But the choice is only yours to make.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Aaaand_ there you have it! Thank you so much for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Woo! It's been *checks calendar*... Three?! Years?! Since I posted a Fic anywhere! And this is my first Fic on ao3 as well! Wow, well I'm happy to be back at it! I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had this idea for a Fic, but I hope you enjoy my take on it! I don't have any sort of update schedule, but the next chapters should be up pretty quickly.


End file.
